Camping

Aha! So, I return from a week's camping in the beautiful Dorset countryside!
I have had a wonderful time while I've been away! The weather was lovely, the company was, well - my parents and Dom. No, the company was great. The sights were interesting and I spent a damn fortune.
I enjoyed the amphitheatre in Dorchester, but I also enjoyed the Wine Shop which was huge! Dom bought some random ale (Hardy Ale I think) which was really strong and brew-in-the-bottle. I was nearly sick after a mere sip! So I stuck to my nasty cider instead (I'll mention the nice cider later)
We also went to Maiden Castle. Maiden Castle is not, in fact, a castle. It's a very large hill fort. The sign proclaimed that it is the largest in Europe, if I remember correctly. There were a lot of sheep. Tame sheep, not wild ones. There were also lots of earth-works (mounds and dips in the top of the hill, for none time-teamers). There were further signs on the hill, but they were all too weathered to be read. It was very windy, but also remarkably sunny. I got rather worried by the very long drop at the side of me and the strong winds trying to blow me down it. I did enjoy the walk more than I usually enjoy walks though. I also got rather sunbunrt. Bother.
On a different day of the week we went to Monkey World. It was Fantastic! I particularly liked the Orangutans. I even bought a toy baby orangutan to be friends with my other cuddly toys. It was an thoroughly enjoyable day and well worth the (small) entry fee - if you're ever in the area, take a day there. Or half a day, as we did. However, this isn't a review of the park...
We also went to the Cider Museum That day. That was also cool. They had a whole bunch of cider presses there, they even use some of them still. They also had a metal bath for making Blue Vinney cheese, but apparantly they can't do that now as it's Lead. They still make Blue Vinney cheese there though, so I bought some of that, and we also bought 5 litres of their cider. It was goood. We drank cider on most of the rest of the evenings there, and we also bought more on the way home!
Dom was particularly excited by getting fish and chips from the van on site on Wednesday night. We all had fish and chips and it was very good. The man in the van cooked the fish to order (well, his wife did) and then he tried to be funny while we waited. He wasn't that funny, I had to feed him the line about going to Monkey World so that he could retort with "And they let you out?" hoho.
Thursday while Dom and my Dad went to see Tanks in Action! at the Tank Museum, Mum and I got on the train to Poole. This was exciting, as Mum doesn't often travel on trains. Poole was nice enough, but after a morning of shopping (I bought a top in New Look, some moisturiser in Body Shop and some nail care off a random woman) and lunch at the local Wetherspoons (how exciting?!) We went on a boat trip. It turned out that the boat wasn't a "tour" as we thought, but just the ferry to Brownsea Island. Well, we decided, we're there, we might as well look around. We did look for the red squirrels which they claim live on the island, but we didn't see any. We did see some baby Peacocks which led me to ask: "What do you call a baby peacock?" - No it's not a joke. Any ideas? We thought maybe Pea-baby or Pea-chick. Then my Mum got all silly and started calling them Chick-peas. I did take a photo of them with my phone, but it was rubbish. I also stroked a small duck.
On Friday, our last day, we went back into Dorchester to visit some museums, but first we went to see the Rude Man of Cerne Abbas. He's a big carving in the landscape with a larger than average club. I bought a mug from Cerne Abbas (the town) and we looked round the old Abbey there. We also ate lunch in a pub which was being re-thatched. Then we shipped off to Dorchester to the war museum there. It was surprisingly interesting. They even had a pack of "Iraq most wanted" playing cards there!
So, yes - a fab week. And it didn't rain on us at all.