Woke up at 7:17am very suddenly and with a gasp – I’d forgotten where I was and I’d been sprung from a strange dream in which ships full of zombies circulated the globe. No one took this fleet seriously, despite my warnings, and soon there were very few governments left in the world. They soon all fell. And I had to hide from the entire human race.
Our adventure began at about 9am, when we set out on narrow roads (well, mostly safe A roads, but the last stretch was hairy) to find Maiden Castle. I’d neglected to tell The Husband that it was an abandoned hillfort, not a castle of the stone variety.
“It’s just a big hill!” he exclaimed, disappointed and thoroughly unimpressed.
But to me it was pure gold. An ancient settlement! Immense defensive earthworks! Seeing the hillfort on foot doesn’t do it justice, I think – aerial photos I’d looked at earlier revealed how amazingly big it is and how much work went into this thing.
It was a bit of a hike up to the western entrance, but so worth it. We encountered confusing paths and deep ditches that were supposed to stymie attackers. Sadly, these impressive earthworks could not keep the Romans at bay. They defeated the inhabitants and moved the main settlement to where Dorchester is now (“chester”, of course, indicates that it was the site of a Roman fort).
The hillfort was covered in sheep and shit. Signs with useful information were sparse and, at this time of day, humans were sparse too.
We traipsed up onto a “wall” (one of the many impressive ridges surrounding the enclosure, which would have been full of people) and enjoyed the epic view. Wow! You could see any army coming at you from there. We could also see a nearby burial mound.
We left, bound for West Bay and hopefully some public toilets!
A spot for the car was easy enough to find – West Bay wasn’t busy yet at 11am and we were able to make use of the parking on Station Road, on pebbles that revealed just how close we were to the beach. That and the dune at the end of the carpark!
After using the (frankly scary) toilets, we walked down to the water’s edge. The Husband stopped many times to shake stones out of his shoes, a somewhat comical sight. It was hard to slough through the stones, though they were smaller near the waves.
The Jurassic cliffs have such a different look to other parts of the country we’ve seen and they are beautiful, if scruffy looking (and they do lose chunks at times, so we were careful!).
I posed for a photo there, at the foot of the cliffs, as many others were doing. Of course, this is where Danny’s body lay in the first episode of Broadchurch.
I had a hankering for ice cream, so I bought too many scoops (“Serious Chocolate” was the name of my choice) and beamed, licking my treat, as I explored the town I’d come to know as “Broadchurch” on the TV. While we ate fatty lunch food from a vendor (she saw me with the ice cream and laughingly asked if I was having my pudding before my tea!), I rang Mum who was very jealous as she likes Broadchurch too.
I found the show’s “police station” – just apartments in real life. How amusing. Though The Husband did say he could see how it doubled as a police station, because of the concrete stairs in front of it.
The Husband finished his own ice cream as we navigated our way “home”. We spent the afternoon watching Doctor Who and occasionally enjoyed the view we have of the bay from our rental.
I think I’m finally relaxing. :)
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