TIM BAKER

Previous: Corfe Castle You’ll never escape The Village! I am number 6, I am a free man!

The next day, prepared with the knowledge that Thy Hot Food Shall Be Eaten Between Thine Hours of 12-3 and that things are rather strict regarding food times, I went looking for breakfast (look at me, I’m as bad as Frodo talking about breakfasts). I noticed the massive queue for the Bakery – very good, I had bought a few gluten free biscuits there the day before. I assume they were doing breakfasts, but not fancying the queue and hanging around with the tourists in Neon Berghaus watching buses go past at the village cross, I thought I’d try the poncey looking breakfast place further along.

Well I detailed their weird attitude in the previous Corfe Castle post – and posted the drawings of the Church and rooftops I quickly did until they shooed me away, so they won’t get a plug here (think goats, and a colour). Luckily I scored one against the man by sneaking one of the gluten free biccies with my coffee. They didn’t do anything gluten free breakfast wise, anyway, it was all wheat/bread based, which I was surprised at.

I then went wandering the area, finding a few things like a fast USB charger by a company called FIFO because the Poundland one was terrible – the local stores had that at a reasonable price, a 20W one which would have made the previous few days of scrabbling for scraps of solar power and asking people to charge my battery much better. It charges fast, and has a USB-C port as well. I also got some Radox as I’d run out…yes the wonders of having showers en suite (sorta). Not exactly slumming it…USB charging and hot showers, I am building up to being more off-grid, but I like my creature comforts.

So after all that and a nose around Corfe Castle I ended up at the Model Village. I didn’t go into the Model Village, but I knew the cafe did nice food fairly inexpensively, but was one of the ones I missed when I arrived. This time I came prepared adn early – and thus got a baked potato and some soup. While I waited I started a drawing of their garden, which had amphorae in it, and very Mediterranean plants – olive tree, bay tree. that sort of thing.

I was susprised at how my drawing style changed with the fine nib – I think I was using the Platinum Preppy here. Picasso-like as I described it (I wish!), all confident (ish) lines. I love those shapes and I love the Mediterranean (a dream is to work in Greece and Italy, so when I see similar shapes and buildings I practice on them.). It’s very much not-me, but I quie like the not-me version of myself.

I then headed to West Hill to create the second of my Corfe Castle watercolours – I had noticed the view the previous day coming into the village, and wanted to get up on the hill and paint that. The idea here was to start with a watercolour painting, then draw over that, a painting in reverse of my usual process. That was literal when it came to the castle, I left a space and filled it in after painting the background.

As a result it’s less ‘paint by numbers’ and parts I had to adjust when I drew them, and still not happy with the trees in the foreground. I am very happy with the castle though. It’s called ‘Rooks and Peregrines’ after the story told to me by the lady at the NT Tea Room that peregrines were fletching there last year, and the ever-present rooks.

And all the time working on the top of cliffs and in extreme places, I kept a hold of my stuff and work, even in howling gales – but this was the only time the work tried to escape from me. The wind took this watercolour and I had to go chasing after it like it was a rather artistic kite. Rather embarassing, but lucky for the piece it wasn’t on a cliff so I could retrieve it from further down the hill before it floated further away.

Now the timelines are all bit jumbled because I finished not one but two Corfe Castle watercolours this day – and have already featured one yet again in the previous post! So actually the rest of the day after this watercolour, I headed to the National Trust Tea Room to work on that one. So actually go to that post to read about that piece if you haven’t already.

And so we draw a veil on this day, apart from the fact of course I went back to the Castle Inn, and had another nice meal there, a puff pastry pie as I seem to recall. I need to stop doing those pub meals – bad for my weight (actually I think I lost weight with all the walking, my belt needs an extra notch), and as I found after, bad for my bank balance. Tappy tappy – contactless as I call it – is now so common it’s easy to forget how much you are spending.

The next day I’d decided to move on, having done what I’d come for – the watercolours of the Castle. But I wanted to draw the ‘Tumble’ – the rocks that were thrown by a massive explosion demolishing the castle after the Civil War. The Castle was a scene of two sieges during the Civil War and an embarassing symbol of royal resistance – by a woman no less – to the Parliamentarians so it was slighted by Act of Parliament. Lady Mary Bankes got her castle back in the end, though.

I was fascinated by these massive blocks thrown by gunpowder like toys – it must have taken a LOT of gunpowder! And so I walekd around the Castle drawing what I could see, in woodless charcoal. This is in part because I was looking at my old Foundation work – as posted here – and liking the charcoal drawings, but here combined with watercolour – or gouache, I am not totally sure but I think this is watercolour.

We also have a drawing of one of the rooks over another part of the castle, where you can see cracks from I guess the explosion. The locals took castle stone for building, but you don’t get cracks like that easily. It must have been many explosions across the castle?

Also I drew the sheep – like with the sheep in Lulworth these natural lawnmowers were used in the Castle itself – I saw them wandering past when I was drawing and painting the first watercolour in the Tea Room. This was on the road to the campsite so I decided to walk back that way to pack up my tent…bad move!

I got caught in a massive roadblock – I don’t know who decided to move forklifts and earth movers on a flat-bed truck on tiny A road like that one – but they didn’t reckon on another lorry coming the other way. Total Dorset gridlock, with many cars, motorhomes and indeed walkers like myself trying to keep out the way as the lorry reversed and the jam behind also moved back to give space for the flatbed.

I eventually got back to the campsite and started to pack up, and turf out the rubbish – in doing so found that someone had thrown out two luminous green Coleman inflatable mattresses next to the campsite bins. I had problems with mine deflating, the old Vango obviously had a leak somewhere, and I was woken up every hour or two as my hips hit the hard ground and I’d have to blow it up again. I had actually added one of those thin roll mats underneath but it didn’t help much as a side-sleeper.

So I decided to do some recycling and take the mat – which was actually very heavy and big – and replace with my old one. This is when the manager caught me and thought I was dumping the whole lot!

So I had to take both mats with me, and find a bin to dump the Vango which I couldn’t carry both and not sure if I could fix the old inflatable mattress. Naughty, but this is the problem, how do you recycle camping gear as a backpacker? I could not physically carry both – in fact the bigger mattress caused problems because it was so bulky and heavy…it really was a mattress for those with a car who can take away their rubbish (but didn’t).

But the bigger mattress did solve one problem during the trip – I could now sleep fairly uninterupted and wasn’t aching the next day from sleeping on almost hard ground. But as I found shortly, the new extra weight was a real problem – but that’s for the next and final post.

I headed for the bus down the path I saw that amazing view of Corfe Castle, and towards the Castle Inn I found the stop on East Street, for the bus to Swanage. I didn’t know if there was going to be space there, it was the August Bank Holiday weekend after all – but I’d already decided to call it a day if I couldn’t find anywhere. I had to head back anyway for the DWP meeting on Tuesday which had prematurely shortened the trip. I needed a rest and to wash my clothes anyway.

Next: 2 Miles To The Next Coffee, California knows how to quarry, fish and chip reprise, an AWOL Karen, a water emergency, a Tilly Whim and a big stone Globe.

• Part 1 – White Horses, Parachutes, Amazing Pebbles & Kites
• Part 2 – Man O War Went Thru The Durdle Door And Got A Dungy Head
• Part 3 – What’s a Sheep Lulworth with All MOD Cons?
• Part 4 – Mupe Bay & Great Fossils of Rock
• Part 5 – Corfe Castle & St Edward The Martyr
• Part 6 – Corfe Castle – Escape from the Model Village
• Part 7 – Swanage Around The Globe On A Tilly Whim