Charmouth in Dorset
For our second adventure, we decided to brave the southern coastal roads during the school holidays and travel down to the Jurassic Coast at Charmouth in Dorset.
August 2016 | 5 minutes read time
Charmouth is a quiet seaside village on the south coast of England and renowned for its fossils as part of the Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I’d been recommended an independent family-owned site, Newlands, situated on the outskirts of Charmouth. The site had facilities including a swimming pool and restaurant, as well as rooms to stay in.
Spencer’s Mum decided she’d like to try our new style holidays – but without the caravan! She booked one of the site’s rooms and off we set.
Unfortunately our best route on the day was to go past Stonehenge. This marvel of the ancient world generates one of the most infamous traffic jams in the UK. Every car travelling on the A303 slows down to stare at the stones, surrounded by more people staring at them in the distance. Even we look every time we pass them – and we’ve been to visit them!
On site at Newlands
Finally we arrived and were shown to our allocated pitch. This time we had to pitch nose in – this gave the best view across the surrounding countryside but also presented a bit of an issue.
We couldn’t back onto the pitch and it had gravel up to my ankles on it. We didn’t have a motor mover (the best add-on device ever for a caravan!) so the site staff had to help manually manoeuvre us into position.
Our pitch this time was a serviced pitch with fresh water and drainage for waste water. It’s well worth getting one of these pitches as a shower can use up a water tank in one go!
The drain for the waste water was sited by the front of the caravan and our caravan waste water outlet was at the back. This meant we had to buy a very lengthy waste hose and create a slope for the water to keep running through. We now keep pieces of wood and gaffer tape in the front storage cupboard of the caravan so I can create drainage slopes wherever we go!
We also had to buy a stop-cock to enable us to connect our water tank directly to the mains. More modern caravans now come with hoses which you can connect directly to the tap.
We set up the ‘divorce in a bag’ (awning) without incident and assembled our new Cadac barbecue. Everywhere you look on caravan sites you will see Cadacs – you can plug them into your gas bottle (or caravan if you have an external gas outlet) and they pack away into a bag for easy transportation. You can also spend a fortune on accessories – including a paella pan and pizza stone!
Out and about nearby
Charmouth
I was excited that we would have the chance to go fossil hunting on the Jurassic Coast. Charmouth beach was apparently a great place to find them and I anticipated seeing them scattered across the beach.
We arrived at the beach on an overcast day and started to search. It immediately became clear that this was going to be harder than it looked. Some people decided that they would ignore multiple danger signs and start hacking away at the cliffs. The cliffs here suffer from erosion and are unstable – there have been many recent landslides, so this was an incredibly stupid thing to do!
A safer bet is to visit the excellent Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, which has guides on what to look for and has many large and interesting fossils on display.
Despite the helpful tips, we didn’t find any fossils. Instead we decided to collect stones which resembled food – I have no idea why! By the end of our walk along the beach we had the makings of a stoney roast dinner with chicken, potatoes and assorted vegetables.
Lyme Regis
We visited Lyme Regis on a typical English summer’s day – cloudy with an occasional glimpse of the sun and the perpetual threat of rain. It’s a pretty seaside town, with a harbour which includes an eye-catching breakwater dating from the 13th Century, called The Cobb.
It was crammed with visitors walking along the picturesque harbour – eating chips and ice cream. This proved to be a dangerous challenge due to the huge numbers of psychopathic seagulls circling above the crowds like hungry sharks.
People ended up clumping together like shoals of fish – worrying that if they were an outlier they would get picked on by the beady-eyed birds. We decided to eat our chips under cover and left the seafront area to eat our ice creams!
Golden Cap
We discovered a very narrow lane leading up the nearby hill, which led to Stonebarrow Hill, part of the National Trust Golden Cap Estate. There is a car park with spectacular views out to sea and many walking trails where you can take in the views along the Jurassic Coast.
We picked a beautiful sunny day to have a picnic and take in the spectacular views. Leaving Spencer’s Mum to have a little snooze in the car, we went for a walk across the undulating landscape, keeping a safe distance from the crumbling cliffs. The views were spectacular!
Family and friends
A family friend lived in an old farmhouse nearby and kept chickens and goats. We were invited for a delicious dinner and Harrison got the chance to feed the chickens and help feed the goats. His favourite birds are chickens, pigeons and seagulls – not typically attractive varieties but he sees the positives in them all. He also loves goats and at this time was obsessed with Goat Sim games, so he thoroughly enjoyed his time there.
We’ve since managed to catch up with many friends around the UK and holidayed on various sites with my parents. It’s wonderful to share our hobby with others!
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How we started out
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Claire's Caravan 