West Dorset Landscape

 

Below is a quick rundown of my working holiday in West Dorset. We were working on removing scrub from a SSSI site on organic farmland. There were a few rainy patches but there was some stunning scenes of the sea from where we were working looking over part of Chesil beach! 

              

          Looking out to sea at the end of the day and group taking it easy taking the views in!

We were stopping at Golden Cap a few miles away from the worksite, again in stunning scenery, however a bit of a long drive up the narrow road up to the basecamp! I had a special encounter whilst working...well anyone who has a snake fobia might not agree but as I was working I caught something moving in the corner of my eye...it was an adder, it was smaller than I thought one would be but had lovely pattenation, 4 of us was lucky enough to see it and it will probably be for me a once in a lifetime thing! I was glad though it chose to slither off and I was quite cautious after dinner break as not sure where it was when we got back!

We also had fun in the field at the top of the site, minibus is all i'm saying, all who were there will know what i'm refering to! Also we had flying lessons at the top of the hill...it was a little windy to say the least!

          

              Working hard(ish) on the last day, our henge, practicing the art of fork leaning!

The day off was spent doing a mystery tour of West Dorset country lanes (don't ask!) then a fruitless search for fossils on Charmouth beach how ever still worth the visit if only to watch the lone surfer...surfing badly! Then the afternoon spent first traditionaly eating chips on the sea front in the rain! Then whilst the leader and assistant went shopping we were left with an improptu 'tat' challenge! We had to find a peice of tat for a pound or less and the leader and assistant judged the entries when we got back to the basecamp, a great way of spending a wet afternoon on the day off! It was taken seriously and great fun had searching by all (anyone who goes to Golden Cap base camp you might find some tasteful gifts left by us, i'm not telling what they are though!)

We also found a great pub in the evenings off that was dedicated to pub games and we learnt the art of bar skittles (very badly played though!!) And thanks to the assistant a great game called 'Toilet' played with cards and much better after a drink or two!! There were a few other games played, too many to name!

                 

                        Charmouth beach and Golden Cap in the morning