13th - 15th October 2006 - Dorset

Puncknowle Manor Cottages

Yet more luxury in the picturesque surroundings of the Dorset countryside. A stone's throw from Chesil beach, Pucknowle is situated a couple of miles inland from the coast between Weymouth and Bridport.

Most of us navigated through the fog to arrive on Thursday night, although the trickiest bit seemed to be identifying exactly which building was our accommodation. Despite the somewhat inclement weather, it was decided that a trip to the beach was necessary on Friday. This gave Mathew an opportunity to wear his very cute blue wellies and his Dad the opportunity to get soaked by a "freak wave". Those without children (or a good excuse) then made their way east along the beach and inland to the thatched cottages and general picture-postcard prettiness of Abbotsbury.

Puncknowle Manor Cottages

Abbotsbury

The expansive kitchen and it's infeasibly large pans were made full use of on Friday night as Donna and helpers put together a suitably large chilli. Later on Twiggy, John, Ben, Rachel and Sam joined arrived to join in the fun.

Saturday morning saw the x ramsoc creche expanded as Sam joined Mathew (along with Emma, Rachel and Ben) for early morning fun. They can't have been too noisy as it took some time before the idle b... sorry, non-parents surfaced much to Sam's delight as his number of playmates kept increasing.

Two parties set out on Saturday afternoon. Andy, Emma, Mathew, Al and Donna headed to the Jurassic Coast (like Jurassic park but with slighly fewer dinosaurs and slightly more seaweed) and the rest of us headed east again towards Dorchester for an ascent of Maiden Castle. It soon became apparent that whatever Maiden Castle had been in the past (Britain's largest hill fort to be precise) it is now a rather lumpy hill. Unfortunately the weather precluded the views that we should have been treated to. we were able however, to test the full off-road abilities of Sam's pushchair as we made our way to the top.

Maiden "Castle"

Hardy Monument

After lunch, Ben, Rachel and Sam headed back to Abbotsbury in the car leaving Lex, Mike, Twiggy, John, Kathryn, Andy and Liz to walk back via the Hardy Monument. At this point disapointment number two reared its ugly head as it transpires that the Hardy monument, far from commemorating Thomas Hardy, was actually erected as a memorial to Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (of "Kiss me Hardy" fame).

Meanwhile, the Collyers and the Stedmons were bashing rocks on the beach at Charmouth in search of fossils. This turned out to be very successful, so much so that the when the others got back to the cottage they were greeted by a natural history museum in miniature laid out on the dining room table

Saturday night was curry night with a small helping of X-factor.

The Jet-setters that are the Stedmons were off to Milan, darling, on Sunday afternoon so had to make an early get away. They were followed shortly by the Collyers. Not far behind were Ben, Rachel and Sam, keen to beat the traffic and get back in time for Sam's tea. This left the London posse heading off to Lulworth Cove where Liz was able to educate everyone on its geological formations courtesy of her recollections of a GCSE field trip there.

And there the weekend ends. Many thanks to Kate for organising and finding such a fab cottage, Liz for stepping in at the last minute and Al and Donna for sorting the food out. Thanks to everyone that came and made it a great weekend. Photos of the weekend can be found in the gallery. BA

Fossils on the Beach