Weymouth holiday

I've been writing this post since I got back, a little bit here and there when I've had time. It's quite a long holiday post so I'm sorry if it gets a bit boring!

We had a lovely time staying at Haven Weymouth Bay, we went from 14th-18th October and booked it through the Sun Holidays. Weymouth is one of my favourite places and I've been on holiday there quite a few times now. I got a bit snap happy while away so I'll choose some of the best photos to show here.

Monday

We left home at about 11am and arrived at about 2.15pm. As we couldn't check in until 4pm we went to Asda to get a few bits then had a walk on Weymouth beach and it was so good to be there, by the sea.

We checked in just after 4pm and we had been allocated a Standard, two bedroom caravan. I decided to ask about an upgrade, they gave us a three bedroom, Standard Plus for £15 extra.

We had pie and chips for dinner from the local chip shop, unpacked and settled in for the night.

Tuesday 

We woke up to a sunny morning and decided to have a trip to Portland Bill and Chesil beach. It was a beautiful day, quite warm and not as windy as it has been previously when we've visited. I took loads of photos, especially of the sea and sky! I used my camera but also my sisters camera, as hers has a much bigger zoom.

This is Portland Bill Lighthouse, there is some history on the lighthouse here.

These birds were all over the top of the lighthouse, I think they were Starlings.

This fishing boat was out catching something.

I like the clouds in these three photos.

The sea crashing onto the rocks.

There were lots of these birds flying around but I'm not sure what it is.

On the way back we stopped off at the new Chesil Beach Centre. We bought lunch at the Taste Cafe, it was fairly expensive £6.50 for my baguette below but we were hungry! The last time I was here it was just a little cabin, doing burgers and similar things.

After lunch we walked along the new walkway, there were lots of these wooden animal figures along the fence, I only took a photo of this first one though.

At the top of the pebbles, looking back and slightly to the left.

Looking towards the sea and to the left, the sky looks so beautifully blue.

Looking towards the sea and to the right, it looks like the beach goes on forever!

Seaweed and a feather I found close by to where we sat down for a bit.

I love the way the sun is glistening on the water and the spray you can see coming up as the wave was breaking on the pebbles.

The sun on its decent into the sea, wow!

Our long shadows walking back towards the centre and car park.

Wednesday 

It had been raining most of the night and still was when we woke up too. We had already decided to go to Dorchester Market, we left it late to leave as the rain was supposed to clear up in the afternoon, we got there at about 11.30 and it was still raining a bit. My dad saw a friend that he works with, they were staying in Weymouth too! By the time we started walking around the market the clouds were starting to clear and when we left the sky was blue and the sun was shining. The market wasn't as big as usual because of the weather, after the market we had a quick walk around the town before heading back to the caravan park.

We had lunch in the caravan and then walked to Bowleaze Cove, there is a path from the park through another park down to the beach. The waves were quite big here and I loved listening to the sea.

The sun was starting to set, this was just after 4pm.

Looking back towards the Riviera Hotel, Sarah at Down by the sea also has this hotel in this post.

Looking towards Weymouth.

Our shadows, even longer than the other shadow photo, on the way back towards the hotel.

This rabbit was munching on the grass, in the field between the two caravan parks.

Thursday

We woke to another sunny day. We were going to use the Park and Ride to go into Weymouth but then went to Value House in Wyke Regis, this shop has lots of different departments and is quite cheap. My dad saw his friend here again! The fire alarm went off while we were in there, after a few minutes they asked us to leave and as we walked out they said over the loudspeaker that it was a false alarm!

We then drove to Weymouth and parked in the Swannery car park, there was a small market on so we had a quick look. My sister and I went to the Shirt Shack and I got a jumper with a flower printed on it. We bought a pasty for lunch and had a short walk on the beach. 

I wanted to go on the Sealife Tower but we didn't have time.

Friday 

We packed up the car ready to leave, once we handed our keys back we played in the arcade for a bit before heading to West Bay. It took about 40 minutes to drive there, we took the coast road and I took quite a few photos while driving but most were blurred. These two were the best.

I think this one is of Freshwater caravan park.

It was VERY windy and a bit drizzly when we got to West Bay.

Boats in the harbour. 

The tide was out and some men were working on this boat.

We walked along the pier.

This gull looked like it was waiting for fish and kept looking into the water.

Looking back from the pier, we walked up that sandy path when we stayed at the Parkdean caravan park here.

A Cormorant waiting for an opportunity to grab some lunch!

We walked on the beach before heading back to the car to eat our lunch.

We left at about 1.40pm and arrived home at about 6pm. This holiday seems like ages ago now so I'm glad I've managed to get it all written down here.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my holiday, sorry if it's a bit long but I wanted to be able to look back and remember it all.

Hope you've all had a lovely couple of weeks. 

Hickling holiday, Norfolk Part 2

I felt a bit better on Wednesday and we went out on the boat. We were supposed to pick the boat up at 9am but we had gone to the wrong boat yard as there are two with the same postcode! We finally got on at about 9.30am, we went along Heigham Sound and up to Hickling Broad. At the end of Hickling Broad we stopped at The Pleasure Boat Inn (where we had been on Sunday). We stopped there for a bit then made our way back along Hickling Broad and tried to make a cup of tea but the gas had run out! The boat owner said to come back up to The Pleasure Boat Inn to get another gas bottle but unfortunately he didn't have the right one! So, he let us have the boat for two hours extra, which meant we didn't have to rush back. Again, we went back along Hickling Broad and into Horsey Mere and up to Horsey Windpump. We didn't go into the mill but bought drinks and ice creams from the shop, the mill is owned by The National Trust. After we had finished our drinks we went back along Horsey Mere and Heigham Sound to the boatyard. In all, we had about six hours on the boat, it was a good day and I enjoyed it! We didn't really see that much wildlife and some of the photos came out quite blurred. You can find out about the Norfolk Broads here.

Because I took a lot of photos I thought it would be easier to make a collage of some of them. I have noticed that the collages sometimes look blurred but if you click on them they come into focus.

On Thursday, although the weather wasn't great, we finally got to the beach, we went to Sea Palling and we found 'A trust you car park', basically they trust you to put the money in the box and it all goes to charity. The tide was quite high when we got there and we spent some time looking in the rock pools, we found a few bits including a starfish, lots of sea gooseberries and quite a few dead crabs. We went for lunch at Sandy Hills Snack Bar as we could take the dogs in too and then played in the amusements for a bit. Back on the beach the tide had gone out quite far and we walked out to have a look and I found, what I think, is sea glass! I'm not an expert so maybe someone can tell me if it is sea glass. I loved the beach but we didn't have as long there as I would have liked.

Our beach finds

Sea glass?

On Friday we went to Wroxham Barns, which has some shops, a pottery place, a small farm and a soft play area. It wasn't really my sort of thing, I'm not really into shopping for hours but the others wanted to go. On Saturday I stayed at the cottage while some of the others went into Great Yarmouth to do some shopping. In the afternoon there was a Strawberry Fair just along the lane so we went to that. It was in someone's garden and was really nice, they had a BBQ, beer tent, tombolas, hoopla, stalls and a children's play area. On Sunday we packed and tidied up and made our way home.

The end of the holiday was tinged with sadness as we received a phone call on Saturday evening to say that a friend, who is only 31, had had a heart attack and probably wouldn't pull through and I have just had a phone call to say she passed away this evening.

 

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