Napoleon Conquers Lyme Regis

It pleases me to announce that we are almost ready for offskys. Napoleon has proved himself deserving of the title SPORT, after hurtlin along on motorways at the grand old speed of 75mph, one that old Bonaparte would even have been amazed at, and steadily grinding up the inches on steep 25% inclines.

So after many many months of searching for a trusty campervan, we are ready to depart in our little Fiat, now known as Napoleon Sport. Napoleon because of the Eastern Europe connection, (and yes Napoleon did not conquer Russia, but he did conquer most of Eastern Europe) and Sport with a nod and a nudge to my old workmates in SE17, thanks for the badge.

We completed a trial run of 4 nights in the royal old resort of Lyme Regis, loftily perched between two fine south english counties of Dorset and Devon. Everything now works as planned and hoped for. Though we do not have the 240v power unless we are hooked up to a mains, i.e. our leisure battery does not have an alternator. So we shall have to be economic with the power usage.

Lyme Regis was once a location frequented by members of the British Royal family, and before man was the dominant species it was inhabited by dinosaurs of various sizes and other creatures. Anyway...it is now quite renowned for being part of the Jurassic Coastline. If you like fossils, go there, and if you have a distaste for large supermarkets and a love for organic local produc, including seafood go there.

Highlights of the trip were a 12 mile walk from Axmouth to Lyme Regis courtsey of Natural England, highly recommended for wild herb foraging and the like. Its also beautiful to see that man has lost out to nature in many ways here. Over the last hundred years the land along this coast has slipped and slid and so made it unsafe for traditional human inhabitation, and so nature is rife. BEWARE THE TICKS!
Another fine walk was from The Golden Cap back to Lyme Regis. The Golden Cap is the highest point on the South Coast of England, however, it isn't very high at all, quite disappointing if you are the conquerer of Lugnaquilla and other behemoths of rock. Great views of the coast over towards the seemingly famous Chissel Beach and Portland Bill to the left, and Salcombe to the right. This was a fine walk for fossil collecting and getting caught by an incoming tide. so we embraced the adventure and scaled a landslide up a cliff face and then with no compass for comfort navigated a Tick-ly forest of trees and scrub.
Other places worth visiting was Lulworth Cove, and we believe the fossil forest is meant to be pretty special,but the Ministry of defence have a firing range there, so it is only open on weekends. The pathetic thing about this fact is that you have to walk a steep 1 mile incline and the same decline on steps before you find this out. Happy Campers!
On the way back to civilisation we stopped off to see how civilisation in the iron age was in Dorset...MaidenCastle/Fort - Europe's largest example of this. Guess who roams this great mound now? a big silly flock of sheep. It's a pity that there isn't much on the site education about this settlement and it's importance to the development of society prior to the arrival of the Romans. Nearby is Roman built (the term built is used loosely) Dorchester, where a fine selection of charity shops awaits the eager shopper.

Napoleon has since required some shopping and a final doctor's check up at the garage, and all healthy we should be off Thursday 17th.