< Previously – Golden Caps and Big Willy Giants (Cerne Abbas)
Yes I know part three has taken 3 months! It’ll soon be time for Jaunt 4 so I better get on and finish this part about Puncknowle. Satanists and Abbotsbury.
A few things happened – my computer died, I had to get a new laptop (not that price, refurbished and smaller size thankfully), Christmas and New Year, I redesigned this site, and forgot to continue this series. Sorry. I hope I can remember where I left off – thankfully my podcasts and photos drop me right back there!
Ahh warmer times, it’s currently freezing and an energy crisis so thinking of summer-ish days is a nice escape. Also given all my experience with WordPress now, I might be able to make this more snazzy as well.
So picking up where I left off, the next day or so – I had to pick up that new battery in Bridport so not totally sure of the timing, I walked to West Bay via Thorncombe Beacon – it was a lovely day apart from the high winds across the headland. You can see from my drawings of the trees up on Thorncombe Beacon how windy it can get up there!
It was sunny though, and quite hot when you got out of the wind…finding places that were a bit sheltered to draw the trees was a bit hard. The title comes from my ever-present admiration of how trees survive, against the odds in places like this – like the half-dead ‘zombie’ trees i paint that have been struck by lightning and still carry on, life finds a way.
These are from my sketchbook – yes the ever-present Lyra Crayon which I was massively into back then. I had to spray these a lot to try and keep them from rubbing away, so much hairspray – the only one worse was the Woody pencil piece in the Chapel (but that’s to come).
There were quite a few people heading up to the top of Thorncombe Beacon, and the going down the other side was quite sheltered and hot – so before I got there I found a hidey-hole down the side of the cliff to wedge and painted the view. Given all the dry weather it was very brown…brown on brown on brown! I described this painting as ‘brown poo’ to someone else, I was rather disappointed by it.
Given where I was, it’s a good thing I didn’t landslip into the ocean. I mentioned the landslips along the beach in the last post – well this is where they were coming from. Eek!
So onto the hard climb up the Beacon and the other side which got quite hot and slippy. Then a gentle stroll towards West Bay – well apart from the wind. I needed a water refill and got one at Eype Beach, at the little shop next to the campsite. I’d enquired about camping there and it was hellishly expensive and full – I think the lady I’d spoken to on the phone served me. I was glad I hadn’t, watching the tents flap like mad. No shelter at all!
So I carried onto West Bay, past all the caravans and mobile homes on the other side. Oddly I think it was here there was a mobility scooter path along the cliffs! It’s a steep climb for one of those. Again, far more signs and fences that the wilder parts near Weymouth. West Bay was West Bay, it’s a conglomerate of fun fairs, Kiss Me Quick hats – well ruder nowadays, ice-cream shops and a sort of harbour but it’s mostly tourists.
The Bridport Carnival was doing an interesting procession to West Bay, ending in a sort of fire/lights thing that sounded quite pagan, all in a circle, ending there at 9pm on the Sunday. I really wanted to go, but couldn’t stay nearby as all sites were all booked up – even the one by the fun fair (noisy!) although they didn’t return my calls, I dropped by and the sign said they were full – although they were mostly empty? I learned later these were reserved for performers and staff for the Festival.
I looked around the beach and the screaming toddlers – yes kids having complete meltdowns over not being able to have yet another ice cream were a common theme around here – and decided to head back. The X53 bus comes here, so it’s a good jumping on/off point. I headed back to Golden Cap and decided that would be my last night there…well it was decided for me really – and that I’d have a last meal at the Anchor Inn.
They were so busy I had to sit in the chilly windy outside but it was totally worth it for the food and that view. While I waited I drew this panorama of the view from the pub. The staff were impressed, and the woman I spoke to was doing her A levels and wanted to do art, but not sure about art college so we chatted about that.
Transcript
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I’m just walking down an old school lane as in a proper track with grass down the centre
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and it started off with a very sort of what seemed to the remains of an old road and I’m
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up in Swyre and I’m walking to Puncknowle to home farm campsite and so I’ve left Golden
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Cap I meant to record a thing earlier ouch I’m carrying all my stuff with me and a bottle
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of wine and extra because it is a bit out in the boonies unlike the previous ones where
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it’s been very much like oh there’s a shop on the side so I don’t think there’s a shop
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for several miles so I’m bringing everything which means I had to go shopping in Bridgeport
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with my massive rucksack which because I ran out of milk well I didn’t run out of milk
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went out on me no the UHT I got went off quite quickly even though it’s been cooler nowadays
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so yes yesterday was very windy I did some works I walked from Thorncombe Beacon I assume
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it’s Thorncombe Hill to West Bay and my feet really hurt after that but it was a you know
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comparatively gentle to the three four miles compared to the previous walks and I went
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to have a look at the Brit Valley campground because I was planning to stay near a West
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Bay so I could see the Torch lit Procession now they still got a sign saying site full
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even though the site is actually half empty and it’s next to a funfair and so I don’t
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know whether I’m going to try and walk down there today because I know that the you know
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oh the biggest hill on the way to West Bay from here from West Bexington is 41 feet
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oh my god compared to the 191 of Golden Cap that’s like but yeah we’ll see I’m thinking
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of this afternoon walking that way and scoping out whether I could walk that way go see the
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Torxlet Possession and walk back at night it really depends on what the paths are like
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and how up you down it is and lots of stuff but according to Osmond I can’t see a massive
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amount of hills in the way I think I remember it’s fairly flat along that Chesle Beach section
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or way around the start of Chesil Beach around here that might not be actually Chesle Beach
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starting there I don’t think it does I think it breaches out around Abbotsbury so it means
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I’m a lot more I’m on the right side of Broughton Bridgeport so I can get later buses at Sevenish
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rather than have to rush back at five or six and also near Waymeth so it’s kind of like
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that was yeah a bit like last time I went for Waymeth and worked back to Swanage this
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time I went as far as I wanted to go which was Golden Cap and then I’ve worked working
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my way back I’m not sure what I’ll do next I’ll stay here for a couple of days to understand
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how much there’s around here and how much availability what’s looming is the August bank holiday
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weekend I may have to come home for that but that’s fine up in two weeks that was partly
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the rush really because it was like oh yes bank holiday but if I find somewhere to stay
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that isn’t terrible I will stay there maybe come back here they’ve got space but yeah
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it would be nice to continue the jaunt into sort of a bit later into early September
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and then head back but we don’t have to but yeah it would be nice to actually have somewhere
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to hide over bank holiday that isn’t sort of on some open cliff somewhere or some thirty-five
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quid a night cliff spot which which has wind with a house so yes so I did a couple of pieces
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yesterday I did a a walk color which I described to someone as brown poo because it was the
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cliffs at Thorncombe Beacon and it was lots of browns and lots of yellows and yellow ochres
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and whatever and it just came out a bit a bit too overworked I was explaining to me
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a bit more like the moot bay picture I saw it went oh wow and then did the watercolour
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in the baking sun and I was like yes maybe I need to be buffeted by winds before I can
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do better work so I think the episode art for this and this is going to be a short episode
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and this is much more to talk about with the procession and I might just do it as a different
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separate podcast because as I said we skipped a day I did record a really good podcast at
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the home at the mobile home last night and I didn’t press record so I was walking through
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Golden Cap Holy Park wittering to myself and this wasn’t recording I mean there was a couple
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of takeaways from that which was one is that I was amused by how they saw that Alberian
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Millfield Derwent Oakdale Ambleside it seemed to me a lot of that things after rivers and
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lakes their caravans and their areas and you know it’s sort of reminiscent of a lost one
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like this track which is the true lost history of England this these kind of old tracks that
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are probably very ancient but this idea of oh yeah we all go for a drink at the Royal
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Lot who conduct off our cap at the Lord of the Manor and then then go doggie on the heath
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oh no no sorry and then go play cricket this you know that England never really existed
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but I just find it fascinating that the Holiday Park seems to try and promote this myth sort
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of very very aspirational naming and what they are is little ticky-tacky boxes that all
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at the same on a hill and kind of nature blank spots I have to say golden cap is good because
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they do actually have some wild areas they do actually have quite a lot more trees they’ve
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got some kind of award from David Attenborough they are kind of recycling although a lot
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people are damping damping we’re dumping caravan equipment you know and camping equipment right
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at the end broken stuff which is really naughty because you’re not supposed to do that although
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I don’t tell anyone I also didn’t dump any items I left some usable items for people
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to to take because I bought a few things there like washing liquid for clothes and I took
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a few little bottles of it I guess I need to do it again but I don’t need that to carry
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that bottle I’m actually given this incredibly heavy weight of this pack I’m glad I did
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that a few other things you know but you know I left them in the in something I didn’t
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dump them in the bin but hopefully some people can use those but yeah it it is you know the
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sustainability of camping is the real sore point especially when people take stuff like
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with festivals and then they take it and then they sort of you know I saw what seemed to
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be perfectly happy fishing equipment which has been dumped because they obviously bought
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it for to do go fishing didn’t like it and then just dumped it it’s really sad to see
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that I mean at least Uli’s actually had things for broken camping equipment and he was mostly
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broken stuff I kept looking the artist in me I kept looking and skips obviously the bins
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go oh it’s anything usable occasionally like on the first trip I found a very heavy mat
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to replace my mat that had had got a puncture right at the end which is good thing it was
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right at the end because that mat was so heavy it was like kind of a mat for really good
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really comfortable but it’s obviously a mat for people who aren’t walking everywhere
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so yes I’m gonna head on to home farm hopefully it’s nice it’s certainly nice price it’s a
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half price the you know of the likes of golden cap it’s only 13 pounds a night they do have
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to get little tokens for the shower so I’ll get a couple of those you do have to you know
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which I don’t mind what I did mind is another campsite which I might end up at but they
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have you have put 20ps in I really can’t be doing with that because you know tokens
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I can live with because then you can buy those with all kinds of different types of cash
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and interestingly this campsite is cash only a lot of the campsites cash less and only
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deal with cards so it’s complete reverse of what I’ve had so far that doesn’t mean I’ve
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got a share amount of cash on me they’re not massive amount can you all listening in the
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trees wants to look at me but yes certain you know it’s a little so I’ve got I’ve got
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enough but you know I don’t mind paying a bit extra for hot shower I didn’t mind having
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meters or anything like that anyway I’ll speak to you soon
I’d phoned ahead a few places and everywhere local was full…until I phoned Home Farm campsite at Puncknowle and I think booked – my memory is hazy about this, I might have just turned up but I think I booked ahead worried about the Festival and everything being full. I’d need not have worried, plenty of space. .
I walked up to Puncknowle from the bus from Swyre getting off at the deceased pub, and following a very ancient track over to the village. The village is very old, really nice pub (I mention booking a meal at The George Inn one night, I meant the Crown Inn, I never ate at the George) and rather Wicker Man-esque. An ancient headless cross in the church which I painted. Kids playing in the street. Random frogs wandering around at night on the roads, a headless cross….the Children of the Corn paths.
Oh and the nice photos of the campsite neglect to mention they are right next to a cemetery, back of my tent looked into it. Spooky! Especially when the fog came down…it was rainy and foggy all the time I was there. Luckily my new 10,000 mah battery was good at converting any slight gleam of light into power, because the old one would not have coped in this gloom.
And I realised when I got there I had been there -the buses go through Puncknowle, but only during certain times, not weekends. Hence having to schlep up from Swyre. Doh!
So after I got settled in and made some food under the tree as it was drier, and sorted out some tokens for the shower. Yes they have a token system which works well…I did try and avoid places with this sort of thing but actually found that paid showers were hotter and far better looked after than the free sort – I guess people conserve their showering if they have to pay 20p or 50p and don’t run it willy nilly?
I got double the amount and found that one token was actually plenty – a good hot 3-5 mins, but I didn’t want to risk a lukewarm short dribble. If you don’t like moths or insects, avoid these showers and toilets! A lot of wildlife in there. The people who run it were really nice though and let me camp in an electric slot for a few days cos it was more sheltered than the main site.
Next day weather being better I checked out Puncknowle’s church and did a sketch of it using Inktense paint travel set and you guessed it, Lyra crayons. St Mary’s is 12th Century, the castle like turret spire is a dead giveaway although not as early as some as it has a sloped roof, suggesting a spire. It was lovely sitting in the churchyard near what I guess was the vicarage as it had a connecting gate – now firmly locked. I did intend to draw the headless cross but never had time, had to settle for the photo brlow. I was wondering a bit but wanted to check out something I saw on the map and briefly from the bus – are they the same place?
The place is called The Knoll, which I’ve just learned has quite a few ancient barrows on it, but is a hill overlooking the sea. What I saw was a ruined building, like a cottage standing starkly on the skyline – was this ‘Knoll’ that very place?
Transcript
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Just standing on a hill looking across at the sunset, it’s going to be cold actually.
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Watching the light on the water looks like Golden Cap got a bit of a light show.
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Inland is rather misty, but I’m at The Knoll and it’s somewhere I kind of saw when I was looking around,
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researching places and went, ooh, and I saw a picture of it and I was like, hey, on Google.
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And I was like, that’s interesting. Wonder if I can get there.
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And then I went to Home Farm and then I saw on the map a Knoll and I was like, haha.
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So by accident, I mean I wanted to come to this area, but I’d forgotten in part why I wanted to come to this area.
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And I did a church. I did a church. Yeah, I did a church.
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I did a drawing of Puncknowle Church because Home Farm is near unckknowle, spelled P-U-N-C-K-N-O-W-L-E.
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And interesting how old the church is because the main bit of church is sort of one of those classic sort of Victorian retro-y sort of redos.
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But it has one of those very old single tower ones. A single tower was like, that is old.
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And also they still have their original cross or, you know, meeting stone or what you want to call it.
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Every village, one of the villages, the reason why you get so many places saying so and so stone, so and so cross
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is because there would usually be a stone cross or a stone pillar or a stone in the centre.
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It’s in the churchyard at Puncknowle and I was like, oh that’s old as well.
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So yeah, it’s a very interesting village. I said that Cerne Abbas is quite Wiccan man, I think there’s a little bit of that in Puncknowle.
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That’s what I’m saying here, right? You know, it’s a bit like Melplash.
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And I’ve just finished a painting of the Knoll which is a ruin on top of a hill and has secrets because right next to it,
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in the bramble, which you can’t see in my painting but it’s very hard to see anyway,
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I even found I think a vole or a rat. I’m not sure when I was trying to get to it.
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I think something scurried away and it was definitely a rodent. There’s two circular things.
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It looks like either there’s a bunker underneath or there was or more likely there was a gun in placement here.
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So I don’t know if the Knoll was built for that but it looks older and it also looks much more residential.
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It had two floors and it had or has had two floors, but someone must keep it up because the roof is still there.
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The rest of the door is empties and the windows are empty and so forth.
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But also that there was obviously two floors and there’s a fireplace originally on both floors as they filled up the second fireplace.
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So I need to do some research into the history of the Knoll.
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It’s an amazing view of the sea.
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I was thinking of going down to West Bexington because usually I wouldn’t do that because I’d be like,
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I’ve got to get back and all buses, blah blah blah.
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It was always the case that I could go for a walk on the cliffs or whatever at night.
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But the way I was was place cliffs that kind of very upy downy and the weather’s been so changeable.
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Something rushed by me to the grass. Maybe it’s another rodent.
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It’s not so changeable, but I know the road is not walkable.
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Whereas here you’ve got the main horrible road, the Dorset Motorway going through, which I took the bus on.
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And also there, that was the fun thing with the bus.
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I didn’t realise, I thought I’d seen Puncknowle before.
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And it turns out that during the week some of the, or maybe all of the X-53s go to Puncknowle.
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Just so they don’t go there on a Sunday.
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It was the day to go there. So I got really exhausted getting to the campsite.
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After I spoke to you on the last little segment, it was just like, oh, yeah, the last bit took a lot out of me.
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But the campsite’s nice. Very old school, very camping and caravanning club.
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Signs everywhere saying, you know, no ball games. This is not for drinking.
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Put this here, do this here. And it’s like, oh.
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I mean, sometimes I feel like I’m in sightseers, except there’s less murder going on.
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I think the last bit might be negotiable.
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But yeah, I…
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It is very bizarre.
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But lovely, run by some old people.
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And they gave me a quiet spot because I was worried about the wind.
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So I’ve got a sheltered spot.
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It only gets solar, I think, up to about afternoon.
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But given I picked up my new battery and my new battery, when it was raining this morning and all horrible,
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and we’ve got a little bit of sunshine, but you know, I only got the end of last…
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It managed to charge up to 47% or 48%.
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And it was even charging up on the kind of like the UV that was reflected away, you know, that wasn’t direct, indirect UV.
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I’m just impressive. So not very much, but it was flashing like I’m getting charged.
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So that’s positive signs.
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So I’ve got a lot more confidence.
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It was the old battery, which unfortunately is no more, or I don’t have it anymore.
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It would be, you know, yeah, I wouldn’t be confident, but the new battery is good.
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And so I’m glad I made that call, even though it’s a fucking faff to go to Bridport Co-op.
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Because in Bridport, all the big shops, in the centre, you’ve got Waitrose, which is going to go very much stuff,
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and it’s quite expensive in Waitrose.
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And you’ve got Spa, but they’re really tiny.
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And the real supermarkets are all about 15, 20 minute walk.
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And you just don’t want to do that with a big rucksack.
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In fact, you don’t want to do that for a stop. That’s just long walks along usually busy roads.
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But around here, the roads are really quiet.
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I mean, I walked up Clay Lane to get to the Knoll.
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I was walking to the Knoll and anyway, there was something I saw on the map and I went, ooh!
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So I had to paint it.
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And I saw one car and it was stopped and idling.
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I think it had taken a picture. That was it.
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And I was like, okay, we can walk on these roads.
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These roads are quiet. And also, there’s the bull.
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There weren’t only lights, but I’ve got my torch.
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You’ve also got the very old lane.
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This is the thing. I’m just really getting vibes at the Knoll.
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It’s really fucking old school when it comes to…
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I don’t know. I haven’t looked up the history of the place yet.
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But the really old church, the really old…
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It was headless. It was headless cross.
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There’s lots of cross, but it was just the thing on the base.
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Which I assume has moved, but might have always been there.
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But usually it’s in the centre of the town where the crossroads is
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or where the market is or the meeting place is.
08:13.000 –> 08:15.000
But the…
08:15.000 –> 08:19.000
Yeah, and then that really old track, you know, with the…
08:19.000 –> 08:25.000
That started out with like, it’s just a footpath, but with really butch rocks.
08:25.000 –> 08:27.000
You know, really butch, sort of like…
08:27.000 –> 08:30.000
Possibly even Roman times, you type like.
08:30.000 –> 08:32.000
But sort of like, it’s been done.
08:32.000 –> 08:34.000
You think you see dips down the side.
08:34.000 –> 08:38.000
You think, aha, this is an old road or trackway.
08:38.000 –> 08:41.000
And then it went into the proper trackway.
08:41.000 –> 08:45.000
But it was all like, yeah, this is old school.
08:45.000 –> 08:49.000
Yeah, I need to look up, but I assume it’s a pre-Domesday village.
08:49.000 –> 08:52.000
Pre-1066.
08:54.000 –> 08:56.000
Possibly, yeah.
08:56.000 –> 08:58.000
And probably the older.
08:58.000 –> 09:02.000
Whereas the the Knoll isn’t, but I need to look up that one as well.
09:02.000 –> 09:04.000
Yeah, because I usually don’t look up.
09:04.000 –> 09:07.000
I mean, I do some research, badly.
09:07.000 –> 09:13.000
I do some research quite often, but I don’t…
09:13.000 –> 09:17.000
I don’t tend to do too much of that,
09:17.000 –> 09:20.000
because otherwise you end up kind of having itinerary and going,
09:20.000 –> 09:22.000
oh, I need to go here, I need to go here.
09:22.000 –> 09:25.000
You know, and that depends so much on the weather and mood and stuff like that.
09:25.000 –> 09:28.000
I mean, there are things, as I say, even though I’ve moved away from going cap,
09:28.000 –> 09:33.000
I want to go back and draw and paint the St Gabriel Chapel ruin.
09:33.000 –> 09:35.000
And I could do that with the bus.
09:35.000 –> 09:39.000
But easier during the week, not all weekends.
09:39.000 –> 09:41.000
You know, stuff like that.
09:41.000 –> 09:45.000
So, and weirdly, I get back very late from Charmouth.
09:45.000 –> 09:47.000
There is like an eight o’clockish bus.
09:47.000 –> 09:51.000
There’s like a late bus the other way,
09:51.000 –> 09:54.000
or on a Saturday, like past seven or nearly eight,
09:54.000 –> 09:57.000
but there’s actually the bus I got back,
09:57.000 –> 09:59.000
or one of the buses I got back.
09:59.000 –> 10:03.000
The last buses are the last buses on the thing, the buses come back here later.
10:03.000 –> 10:07.000
So it would be kind of easier to do a painting over there,
10:07.000 –> 10:11.000
then come back on the bus and it would be to do the reverse.
10:11.000 –> 10:15.000
It’s late, so.
10:15.000 –> 10:23.000
But yes, but yeah, I need to find a way to get some Gabriel’s Chapel without.
10:23.000 –> 10:24.000
Can I go over Golden Gap?
10:24.000 –> 10:28.000
I think I can go over the cheating Car Park.
10:28.000 –> 10:29.000
I mean, I’ve done it.
10:29.000 –> 10:35.000
So I can say I’ve done it, but no, I don’t really want to do it again.
10:35.000 –> 10:39.000
At some point, I will, but not at the moment.
10:39.000 –> 10:43.000
So yes, so a change of plan.
10:43.000 –> 10:48.000
I was going to put one of the windy trees as the,
10:48.000 –> 10:50.000
unless I put this into a separate podcast,
10:50.000 –> 10:52.000
which I might actually do as well.
10:52.000 –> 10:53.000
Actually, I probably will do that.
10:53.000 –> 10:55.000
So scrub that.
10:55.000 –> 10:58.000
Yes, all that previous section, I was talking about the previous podcast,
10:58.000 –> 11:01.000
but yeah, you know, I think you’ll make this a separate podcast.
11:01.000 –> 11:12.000
But the thing is, yes, it’s on Fabriano, a Rosapina paper with fountain pen.
11:12.000 –> 11:14.000
The paper started to fall apart, unfortunately,
11:14.000 –> 11:15.000
because it’s not purely cotton.
11:15.000 –> 11:17.000
It’s only a cotton mix.
11:17.000 –> 11:23.000
Had some problems with, obviously, doing a bit too much wet on that.
11:23.000 –> 11:25.000
It’s not as warm today.
11:25.000 –> 11:27.000
So, you know, you can get a lot of bleed.
11:27.000 –> 11:33.000
So I had some fun with that and then it started to disintegrate when I was trying to take it off.
11:33.000 –> 11:35.000
But I’m pretty proud of it.
11:35.000 –> 11:37.000
I was trying to make it not, it started out being very magic cottage,
11:37.000 –> 11:39.000
very Thomas Kincaid.
11:39.000 –> 11:43.000
And I was like, no, we’re not doing that.
11:43.000 –> 11:47.000
But I like the greenery on the front of it.
11:47.000 –> 11:52.000
So this is the very abstract greenery.
11:52.000 –> 11:55.000
That’s good in the sky behind, which is what it is.
11:55.000 –> 11:57.000
It’s at the top of a hill and I’m sitting low down.
11:57.000 –> 12:01.000
So you’ve got the low view.
12:01.000 –> 12:05.000
So yes, that will be the artwork for this.
12:05.000 –> 12:10.000
And then the next and the previous one I’ll do the windy, windy trees.
12:10.000 –> 12:14.000
So anyway, I’ve come bucked in for do the George Inn for food tomorrow.
12:14.000 –> 12:17.000
Tonight I’m going to go back.
12:17.000 –> 12:21.000
Well, I don’t know how it’ll be dark or not, but I’ll do some.
12:21.000 –> 12:25.000
It’s probably some people somewhere come over and say, oh, no, you can’t do that.
12:25.000 –> 12:31.000
But I will do some knocky probably or some pasta.
12:31.000 –> 12:33.000
I have a mountain of pasta.
12:33.000 –> 12:36.000
Yeah, I’ve got to use up those.
12:36.000 –> 12:40.000
I’ve got several of those heavy source things.
12:40.000 –> 12:45.000
So I need to reason them up and it’s just part of the, but I also got some red wine.
12:45.000 –> 12:51.000
But it’s another thing that was carrying up extra food and granola,
12:51.000 –> 12:54.000
because I couldn’t find any of the Kellogg’s variety things.
12:54.000 –> 12:56.000
That was heavy.
12:56.000 –> 13:01.000
So a bag of granola, gluten free granola, and then you’ve got wine and stuff like that.
13:01.000 –> 13:05.000
So, you know, that kind of added to it because it’s my usual pack of things.
13:05.000 –> 13:08.000
And I’ve been trying to reduce it down and then go shopping.
13:08.000 –> 13:11.000
And then because, as I said, no shops around here.
13:11.000 –> 13:16.000
So, or they are, but they’re kind of farm shops and they’re kind of really spread out.
13:16.000 –> 13:20.000
And in fact, I might actually go through one, if I want to go wandering now,
13:20.000 –> 13:25.000
before it goes a bit too dark or locate one and have a look.
13:25.000 –> 13:30.000
It won’t be open, but it’d be nice to find out where it is for later.
13:30.000 –> 13:33.000
But yeah, looking in the bus, I was like, yeah, nothing.
13:33.000 –> 13:40.000
You know, there’s bits in Burton Braddock, which is the stuff before, which has got the hive.
13:40.000 –> 13:46.000
So like during the day, walking along this coast, there will be cafe things.
13:46.000 –> 13:48.000
Yes, that’s fine.
13:48.000 –> 13:50.000
But not so many.
13:50.000 –> 13:53.000
And there’s a Texaco there as well, which has a little shop.
13:53.000 –> 13:56.000
So there is a shoppy there.
13:56.000 –> 13:59.000
But if I’m jumping on the bus, well, it depends on how far it’s to walk.
13:59.000 –> 14:01.000
It might be walkable.
14:01.000 –> 14:03.000
But during the bus, it may as well go to Bridport or Weymouth.
14:03.000 –> 14:07.000
So I’m kind of equidistant now, sort of.
14:07.000 –> 14:10.000
I think that spray is more maybe middle of it.
14:10.000 –> 14:12.000
I’m sort of between the two.
14:12.000 –> 14:18.000
So I can either way, you know, and, you know, so we’ll see.
14:18.000 –> 14:21.000
But I managed to get my milk, which was good.
14:21.000 –> 14:28.000
That was the thing I was bothered about because no oat milk or any form of milk.
14:28.000 –> 14:30.000
I can’t have any cereal.
14:30.000 –> 14:37.000
Anyway, I’ll speak to you soon.
It was…and not for the first time this trip something I spied far away I later found by accident. This has a weird past – apparently used as a decoy during WW2, it also seemed to hide a bunker next to it. This place has secrets…but it looks like it was built earlier than the 1940’s, and someone was looking after the roof, and looks like it had a second floor at some point, but now totally gutted. So I sat down and painted it til the sun started to set. It was a magical place to paint.
I had thought about taking the bus to the Bridport Carnival and then walking back along the Chesil Beach shingle later than night- I couldn’t work out whether I could walk back along the coast then or whether that was a dumb idea. I hate walking on shingle. So I walked down to West Bexington, start/end of the infamous Chesil Beach shingle marathon, and saw that yup, it was shingle beach and decided not to bother. Shame but seems like you have to plan ahead for the Carnival and get local accommodation or transport.
Nice toilets open 24 hours at West Bexington though, and a nice bar that was sadly shutting down, looks like a good place for a sundowner. But I then had the long walk back up, past the farm shop which also looked interesting but never got to go to – but wanted to find it if I needed supplies urgently. I had a lot of pasta to eat anyway!
Transcript
00:00.000 –> 00:16.440
Yeah, it’s walking through the Children of the Corn footpath which, if you see it following
00:16.440 –> 00:24.080
my Facebook or post it on Twitter, you’ll know what I mean, it’s going to grow a lot
00:24.080 –> 00:27.960
of corn here, which I was wondering what it was, but now I’m close up it’s definitely
00:27.960 –> 00:35.800
corn. The footpath goes straight through a cornfield. Yeah, it’s all a bit Stephen King.
00:35.800 –> 00:47.400
As is a little bit the village, although it’s quite, it’s a, that’s a quite friendly place,
00:47.400 –> 01:02.480
but yes, addendum to the, to the thing from last night, I walked down to West Bexington and you
01:02.480 –> 01:09.320
know, I did one of my old school night walks because the roads around here are fairly quiet,
01:09.320 –> 01:12.920
although there’s a couple of people going down to the big, to the Chesil Beach at night,
01:12.920 –> 01:23.640
and it’s like, what are you doing, docking? And the dark, yes, what are you doing? But I had a
01:23.640 –> 01:30.920
look at the paths and the paths, both sides do not look interesting as in, mostly they just go
01:30.920 –> 01:38.000
along the beach. And so one direction, it’s basically, hey, Chesil Beach, really? Or does
01:38.000 –> 01:48.000
it sort of goes into Chesil Beach, which long-term listeners or readers of the blog or anything
01:48.000 –> 01:54.480
I’ve posted about walking those, let’s say three things I hate greatly, one I probably have today,
01:54.480 –> 02:02.760
which is wet grass, it’s slippery footwear, it’s raining. The other one is what I call scrabble,
02:02.760 –> 02:12.440
or scramble, or, you know, scrabbly rocks, especially on inclines. But then the number one,
02:12.440 –> 02:19.280
probably the number one I hate, above all, because I’ve done it, is pebble shingles,
02:19.280 –> 02:27.360
because it’s fine for, you know, for a short while. But I did a five mile walk along Hithe,
02:27.360 –> 02:35.560
and there’s no way of getting out of that, because it’s military range. And it was horrendous,
02:35.560 –> 02:44.640
because your legs just, it really hurts the back of your legs. There’s something about the,
02:44.640 –> 02:51.320
the walking through, you know, it’s like walking through mud. It’s just something about it,
02:51.320 –> 02:57.440
which really is very, very hard on the legs. And the idea of doing five miles to West Bay,
02:57.440 –> 03:05.520
mostly along the beach is some passing land, but no cliffies, no up-and-downies. The other
03:05.520 –> 03:10.840
direction, it’s all that way, and eventually goes into the Chesil Beach itself. And it’s like,
03:10.840 –> 03:17.120
yeah, so what I’m wondering, after seeing that. I kind of knew this, this is kind of more of the
03:17.120 –> 03:26.720
research I did nearly a year ago, and have forgotten about thing. But, you know, I’m here for
03:26.720 –> 03:33.360
Abbotsbury. I’m so here for Abbotsbury. I’m here for a few things around here, but I’m increasingly
03:33.360 –> 03:40.120
getting the feeling that I will probably have to move on, and move on past the, well, I think it’s,
03:40.120 –> 03:43.280
I think it’s not the Jurassic’s Coast, Jurassic Coast anymore, because that’s more of a West
03:43.280 –> 03:53.480
Dorset thing. Whereas East Dorset, it’s lyme regis, and that looks more interesting. So,
03:53.480 –> 04:03.920
I think what I might do is head more that way, maybe do a day trip to, you know, the St. Gabriel’s
04:03.920 –> 04:11.680
Chapel, you know, back. But we know that the buses go a bit late that way, so it makes sense to
04:11.680 –> 04:17.280
actually go, there’s two things you can do, you can either go to the area you want to visit,
04:17.280 –> 04:28.680
or choose the buses wisely, choose your buses wisely, and then sort of go with, go with the flow
04:28.680 –> 04:33.160
of where the buses can get back too late, so you walk, you walk towards the area where they
04:33.160 –> 04:40.520
run late, and then they run back on them. So I might do that, and so go past Charmouth, and stay
04:40.520 –> 04:46.600
somewhere around Lyme Regis, or beyond. The only problem, of course, is Bank Holiday weekend,
04:46.600 –> 04:53.760
it’s coming, it’s coming, run away. And so, increasingly, might have difficulty finding
04:53.760 –> 05:02.360
places that aren’t full. Doesn’t help today being a rainy day, and I mean rainy. Not, not,
05:02.360 –> 05:08.920
not like the flash flood deluge we had, which I might have missed on the bus, but just constant
05:08.920 –> 05:15.800
rain, or drizzle. It hasn’t stopped today. Unfortunately, I mean, my solar is very low. It’s
05:15.800 –> 05:20.040
charging, but it’s just because so it’s cloudy, it’s just not really doing anything. So unless it
05:20.040 –> 05:25.880
brightens up by about the afternoon, because it’s been shade the afternoon, because the, I bet you
05:25.880 –> 05:29.160
anything it brightens up in the afternoon, late afternoon, because that’s when the shade kicks
05:29.160 –> 05:37.840
in, or the tree, because I’m actually right by a tree, which is helpful. It’s a dry area,
05:37.840 –> 05:46.520
I can, should have moved the tent under the tree, but I didn’t. But, but I’ve got a dry area where
05:46.520 –> 05:55.840
I can have breakfast and, you know, do stuff, which is nice, which is nice. And I’m right,
05:55.840 –> 06:01.720
the first one, or not the first one, the last one going cat was right next to a sewage works,
06:01.720 –> 06:06.680
which I didn’t talk about. But yeah, it wasn’t smelly, but was right next to a sewage. This one,
06:06.680 –> 06:14.720
this time, I’m right next to a cemetery. That’s fun at night when you hear noises. So when I
06:14.720 –> 06:21.280
heard the fireworks from, from the carnival, which I couldn’t go to, not when I’m bitter about that.
06:21.280 –> 06:29.920
Well, I’m glad I didn’t go to it, because if I had gone to it, that would mean not a difficult
06:29.920 –> 06:36.640
five miles, not a Durdle Door or something at night, which is kind of dumb, but, you know,
06:36.640 –> 06:43.800
not like something like that. But it would have been a horrible five miles across mostly
06:43.800 –> 06:50.920
single beaches. And yeah, it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be quite dangerous, but it would be horrible.
06:50.920 –> 07:06.240
So yes, not a fan of that. And so yeah, I’m rambling this. So I’m thinking of heading that way,
07:06.240 –> 07:10.120
which would be interesting because that would be, that would be new territory. I haven’t researched
07:10.120 –> 07:15.920
that area at all. Looks interesting, looks more up here than the stuff before it, because the,
07:15.920 –> 07:22.320
as soon as you get past the Stealth Hill of Death, which is Stonebarrow Hill, Charmouth, you know,
07:22.320 –> 07:31.440
Regis area is pretty flat. But I have memories of going to Lyme Regis. I’ve got, I’ve got photographs.
07:31.440 –> 07:36.840
I need to check where I went to, because I didn’t go that way. I don’t remember anything about
07:36.840 –> 07:44.040
Seaton or anything like that, or beer. So I must have come that way. But the thing is, I don’t
07:44.040 –> 07:54.720
remember Stonebarrow Hill possibly. So if I did walk some of this, I completely blanked it. I need
07:54.720 –> 07:59.040
to refer to my old photographs because I’ll tell you where I was. And back then I was having a
07:59.040 –> 08:07.440
GPX track as well. So I actually could sync. So it’s possible I even got a GPX tracker on exactly
08:07.440 –> 08:13.960
where I walked back in 2009, or wherever it was. It was a long time ago. It was, you know, 2000,
08:13.960 –> 08:23.560
it was in noughties, not, not 10s, but, or maybe early 10s, or like in noughties. Because yeah,
08:23.560 –> 08:29.560
that’s when I was doing all those coastal walks, and not podcasting them. No technology wasn’t
08:29.560 –> 08:37.160
there. Well, it was, but I didn’t have it. And certainly this idea of having 4G in places like
08:37.160 –> 08:45.240
this. Sometimes. Like at the campsite, nothing. It’s obviously the headlamp blocks it. So yeah,
08:45.240 –> 08:49.840
I think I might head down there. Because you know, if I’m going to end the holiday on a bang,
08:49.840 –> 08:54.400
I want it to be somewhere, or it’s like, oh, okay, so I knew somewhere interesting somewhere.
08:54.400 –> 09:00.440
Whereas here, I’m like, I kind of know bits of here. And I’ve been Chesil Beach,
09:00.440 –> 09:07.360
joint two, I did Chesil Beach. I did. I didn’t walk it. I did part of it. And then when I’m not
09:07.360 –> 09:15.320
walking the rest of this, fuck that. And I mean, I respect anyone who has walked the 13, 14 miles
09:15.320 –> 09:23.200
of Chesil Beach. But it is, if you don’t know, it’s this long promontory. Look at them at,
09:23.200 –> 09:27.880
but the long promontory of a sort of, there’s like an inland section, which they call the,
09:27.880 –> 09:35.640
I think it’s a Fleet Navigation. And that’s, and then there’s like a, like a strand that goes out
09:35.640 –> 09:45.600
13 miles. So it’s this kind of like beach that’s on its own. It’s a long strip. And, you know,
09:45.600 –> 09:55.000
no people do walk it. It’s 13, 14 miles of walking on, on, on shingle pebbles, you know,
09:55.000 –> 10:01.720
with no way of getting out. You, you, you know, if it rains, shine, whatever, you have to keep
10:01.720 –> 10:08.560
going. And, you know, a walk of that length is not impossible for me, especially along to level.
10:08.560 –> 10:16.240
It’s the up and down you bit set, you know, are more strenuous for me. But, you know, I used to do
10:16.240 –> 10:25.400
20 mile walks. I’m trying to do it now to a bit out of, a bit out of a bit unfit. But, you know,
10:25.400 –> 10:32.080
yeah, I could build up to, but it’s the shingle thing. It’s just your legs in after about five,
10:32.080 –> 10:40.240
four, five miles. And so you’re just like, your legs really hurt. So anyway, we’re walking down
10:40.240 –> 10:48.600
to Swyre. Along the old track I mentioned, it joins up with the cornfield, towards the corn path.
10:48.600 –> 10:56.240
Because the reason, the reason why I know it’s an old track is that it’s actually, there’s a style
10:56.240 –> 11:02.000
that has one of the old steps, steps over the wall thing. And that’s this use, and they’ve put a
11:02.000 –> 11:11.040
modern sort of wooden star next to it. And that’s like, that is old school. So anyway, I’m going to
11:11.040 –> 11:16.120
see if I can try and get the bus. And it’s chucking it down. But I thought it was a good day to go
11:16.120 –> 11:21.440
and check out Abbott’s Ray. See what’s there. I’m not going to go up to the castle. That’ll be
11:21.440 –> 11:32.000
horrible this time, unless it clears it up a bit. But anyway, I’ll speak to you soon.
So part of the reason coming to Puncknowle was to get better access to Abbotsbury without the vagueries of connecting buses at Bridport. I was now the ‘right side’ to get back later and get there earlier.
But of course like the fog it rained all day….I did shelter in a local cafe for a bit with a hot chocolate (Endless Tales of Essex – turns out the owner was from there as was some visitors) and then wandered around the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter in the rain, doing sketches where I could then dashing for cover. It was one of those on/off days.
I was annoyed since this was the second attempt at being here, like I was fated to never get to see the place – and I couldn’t really afford a third so just dodged the weather where I could. The place was fascinating as you could see bits of the Abbey in the buildings around, that it survived in the kleptomania of the locals.
I had some chips sheltering in Cherries Abbey Farm after doing a Kuretake brush pen ink piece of the massive Abbotsbury Tithe Barn (it almost got rather rained on) during one of the nice spells. This has never been posted cos I did take a photo of it but it didn’t post for some reason – so one of the rare unseen exclusives!
Talking of spells, things got rather spooky when I walked up to St Catherine’s Chapel – the guides and marked paths are all wrong btw – and got rather wet and lost on that hill. It was very foggy, and I passed some other people who looked equally lost, Spanish tourists? Eventually the Chapel loomed out of the mist, ominously.
Turns out the building I’d seen far away in the distance when drawing the view from the bus stop last time was this one! I had found my mystery building! St Catherine’s Chapel was disused during the Dissolution and destruction of Abbotsbury and being used as a secular storeroom, which is why it survived, unlike the rest of the Abbey. I sheltered there from the rain and drew the rather strange votives and trinkets people had left – looking for cures for diseases, memories, people dedicating cards and things to lost ones. It was quite medieval.
Transcript
00:00.000 –> 00:23.840
Hello, hello from St Catherine’s Chapel, which is on the hill high above Abbotsbury,
00:23.840 –> 00:34.560
one of the few dry places and it’s got amazing reverberation probably disturbed by somebody
00:34.560 –> 00:44.400
else coming because I saw a lot of people coming up here. It’s like that thing I posted
00:44.400 –> 00:53.680
on my Facebook about a woman who went to the less obvious spaces of visited places and
00:53.680 –> 00:58.160
then stayed there for an hour to show how many people come here. I suspect it’s probably
00:58.160 –> 01:06.400
one of those places that seems very quiet but actually isn’t. That’s interesting, people
01:06.400 –> 01:20.000
are leaving little votives and messages to loved ones. Hello from a rainy Abbotsbury.
01:20.000 –> 01:31.640
It seems fated to never actually be able to experience Abbotsbury without some kind of
01:31.640 –> 01:40.040
drama be it transport. I did a plan to come to Abbotsbury on trip two which got aborted
01:41.400 –> 01:48.360
if not trip one. I was staying mostly the other side of Weymouth and that one and then of course
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I came here early in the trip and had to a few days ago and I had to abort because of the
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buses getting back so I thought oh I’ll stay nearby and of course it has to be a complete
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downpour all day. But I have to say I really recommend that there are lots of tea rooms
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and cafes in Abbotsbury some closed down actually but I recommend the cherries near
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the ties bar which I did a drawing of by sort of an ink brush drawing which I might post
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as part of this if I want to do something else. I might try and do a drawing in here
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because it’s one of the few dry places or maybe the outside if it stops pissing it out.
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Trying to get to the chapel is fun because the paths just repeat are out and I don’t know if it’s
02:45.080 –> 02:52.680
you’re supposed to just we’ll find out. Ironically I got the tap and I saw a track way in the signing
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so I might be easier to find the way out on the way down rather than up but following the
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suggestion of the so southwest coastal path that passes by here you know OSmAnd had paths going up
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to a bench and it just stopped and the path continues a bit away from the church
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or chapel when it’s all a bit bizarre. So yeah I really recommend cherries partly because you’ve
03:22.920 –> 03:28.600
got plugs there so you can charge your devices and stuff which is the problem with the other one I
03:28.600 –> 03:34.120
went to earlier in the day. I’ve been doing a lot of cafe, cafe hiding away from the weather
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because it’s been so bad you know it it’s rained and then it stops for a while and it starts
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chucking it down again so it’s just constant but yeah the other one is very nice but doesn’t have
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any any sort of plugs you can use and that’s kind of essential on a day like this because
03:55.000 –> 04:03.000
my solar power yesterday it was like 30 or 40 by the time I I sort of left the campsite
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from a bit from the previous night and the morning today it was like 16 17 because it’s just
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just horrible and gray and cloudy and I was hoping it would sort of you know get you know nice to
04:17.000 –> 04:22.920
later it hasn’t. I have to head back fairly early anyway because I’ve got a booking for a meal
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tonight which I will look forward to greatly and yes so there were mains of the Abbey and Abbott
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Spree and you might guess the name there was one there’s two. Bury is usually a good sign for a
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tumuli which is the Rappont-Dare up on the Abbott Spree castle which is basically a hill
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fort and the Abbott from Abbey and there was a Benedictine Abbey of St Peter’s in Abbott Spree
04:53.720 –> 05:01.320
and the tithe barn is there the Dove cart you can see the bits of the old abbey in the buildings
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it’s like hybrid buildings have got bits of what obviously was part of the abbey into new buildings
05:06.280 –> 05:11.400
and then walls and things have taken bits and bits in the church have been hybridised and
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or sort of taken as in the porch of the church there’s a very old sculpture which must stay back
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to those sort of 11th or century times so there’s that sort of age and the tithe barn is amazing
05:26.920 –> 05:33.720
and they’re building an artisan complex there and I was as an artist I was just like giggle
05:34.600 –> 05:38.600
because it’s weird we’re talking with this echo
05:41.880 –> 05:48.120
because they had this thing where you know I just immediately was like yeah those are the
05:48.120 –> 05:53.400
those are the second job artisans the ones that are you know housewives and they’ve already got
05:53.400 –> 06:00.120
an income coming in or kind of do it as a side hustle or or have money already because really
06:00.120 –> 06:07.720
you know artisan craft studios are only usually affordable by people who actually have
06:09.320 –> 06:16.680
money real artists like me get side-eyed and get complete shade from most of the people around
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here because who’s this dirty backpacker they kind of change their tune if I know an artist but
06:23.640 –> 06:33.000
still it’s real artists and like me the ones unless they are Damien Hirst or whatever and have
06:34.040 –> 06:41.400
or painting Gucci suits was it Armani there’s uh what’s his name used to do
06:41.400 –> 06:46.600
Basquiat you know but you know unless you’re kind of that sort of like art world wanker
06:47.320 –> 06:53.000
you tend to look kind of scruffy in not rich because most artists are covered in stains and
06:53.000 –> 06:58.440
paint stains and ink stains or whatever because that’s you know repairs to your clothes because
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that’s what you need to be an artist is is to be poor usually but yeah most some people are
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a bit nice but some people can tell like like in the first cafe they weren’t that friendly this guy
07:12.360 –> 07:18.360
when it wasn’t that friendly with me and it was just like hmm yes he was speaking to some people
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from Essex can you guess what what the man did oh it was a copper just surprised seems like Essex
07:24.040 –> 07:34.040
is full of coppers some of them bent um and I don’t mean queer but yes it is you know so he’s
07:34.040 –> 07:45.640
like oh my tribe you’re not my tribe and I get that a lot from from people that um you know it’s
07:47.240 –> 07:52.280
you know you’re my difference my neuro neurodivergence my neurodifference
07:53.320 –> 08:02.040
sense of sense of ? being other weird or sometimes creepy which is weird because I try and
08:02.040 –> 08:08.760
you know a bit like tall people try and seem smaller and you know fat people make jokes
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about themselves to make others uncomfortable or disabled people you try and mask and filter yourself
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into that world and yeah it’s in a way it’s a fool’s game because no matter how much you do
08:25.400 –> 08:32.760
you will never be accepted so it’s best to just be you and just accept that you’re a quiet taste
08:32.760 –> 08:41.320
that’s why I’ve been had to do recently so yes if you’re coming up to St Catherine’s Chapel
08:42.120 –> 08:48.360
it is south of Abbotsbury and you probably get on Chapel Lane and then get very confused
08:48.360 –> 08:54.280
but I think there might be another track up there that’s a bit more direct from Church Lane itself
08:54.280 –> 09:01.720
which I must have missed but but yes come and find this space and play with the echo
09:02.760 –> 09:07.080
and try and work out if I want to draw it I might draw a bit of it it’d be nice to do another
09:07.080 –> 09:12.520
drawing today even though I’m checking it down I can work in the rain and I was working in the
09:12.520 –> 09:18.600
rain when I was doing the um the ties barn sort of ink thing because that dries fairly quickly
09:18.600 –> 09:22.760
but I don’t mind the odd sort of like splat you know that’s the texture but there was a site
09:22.760 –> 09:32.600
it got to the point was like no drizzle is fine actual deluge is not I know nothing about the
09:32.600 –> 09:40.520
this chapel but it still seems pretty old on the inside it’s not slightly modernized on the outside
09:42.200 –> 09:49.400
but uh it’s empty apart from these alcoves with votive things to people or whatever
09:49.400 –> 09:57.000
I don’t know why someone’s got a dog bone in here dog biscuit here but yeah I probably shouldn’t be
09:57.000 –> 10:03.400
reading it but yeah which in a way kind of makes sense because a lot of the chapels historically
10:03.400 –> 10:10.440
and these places were for pilgrims to come and make some kind of votive offering although they
10:10.440 –> 10:15.640
were doing a pilgrimage for someone else or themselves um to change the situation
10:15.640 –> 10:25.480
so it’s weird how the you know people mentioning COVID it’s weird how in modern times people
10:25.480 –> 10:29.960
are still doing these things which would have been kind of what would you know people would
10:29.960 –> 10:35.240
have slept here for because it was certainly back in the day the problem wasn’t a lack of buses and
10:37.240 –> 10:43.320
a bit of rain it would have been a much bigger hardship to come to somewhere like here and I
10:43.320 –> 10:49.400
say it’s on a launch I do wonder about the ancientness this space because the hill is
10:50.120 –> 10:55.560
a bit like Glastonbury Tor it’s got all those undulations and things around it and it just
10:55.560 –> 11:03.560
says to me you know I wouldn’t be surprised if this was built on an existing earthwork or something
11:03.560 –> 11:13.880
or or existing worship site as a lot of these sites were anyway a bit of go 11 minutes and see
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if I can do some work before braving the rain some more and then heading back for a meal that will
11:20.280 –> 11:31.000
be good um I have to do that I’ve got about two hours before bus bus my last bus I mean the
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weather was not shitty I would probably walk back on the coastal path because it seems like the
11:36.840 –> 11:44.200
coastal path varies some of it’s inland it seems like there’s a beach section but I suspect there’s
11:44.200 –> 11:49.880
two but really it’s quite far inland and it intersects at this point with the ridgeway which
11:51.080 –> 11:58.840
I from joint one that’s where that was with osminton white horse that is where I was to
11:58.840 –> 12:08.520
Malay and the white horse chalk drawing on the hillside drawing and then we came across it again
12:10.360 –> 12:16.840
recently on this trip with the Abbotsbury castle and it intersects oh we’re Bexington
12:17.640 –> 12:22.600
I think you should stop there so that it’s on the end of it but then it goes onto the
12:22.600 –> 12:30.680
Chesil Beach stuff so yeah there seems to be two of them one kind of one kind of is inlandi
12:30.680 –> 12:37.320
and one’s Chesil Beachy but I think they kind of combine in places so I think it’d be possible but
12:37.880 –> 12:45.080
if I do like this now I mean just walking up to the chapel I was like why am I doing this
12:45.080 –> 13:01.000
yes but then you get this wonderful echo no anyway I’ll speak to you soon
13:01.000 –> 13:13.720
well that was weird I was drawing in
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these in the chappel and on my way up I saw three Spanish I think Spanish people
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and then when they arrived oh you finally made it and they kind of lurking around outside and
13:33.080 –> 13:39.160
then some other people came along also Spanish ladies feared these people were lurked and they
13:39.160 –> 13:43.960
waited patiently they set up their camera and I thought they were just telling me so I’m gonna
13:43.960 –> 13:47.240
take some pictures I’m like okay well you take some pictures that doesn’t stop me
13:47.240 –> 13:58.920
um but they seem to not want me there and they seem to sort of you know wait rather
13:59.640 –> 14:05.800
annoyed that I was I was there drawing pictures inside the chapel because I thought it was a
14:05.800 –> 14:12.920
quiet place dry place and I’m having fun trying to get them back without the thing getting drenched
14:12.920 –> 14:19.240
because I didn’t have a chance to let them dry because they seemed to be waiting so I’d be a
14:19.240 –> 14:25.560
nice person sort of scuttled outside before my work was dry now the strangest thing was if the
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woman was wearing this big robe you can probably guess where this is going and I don’t know what
14:34.120 –> 14:37.880
kind of shoot they’re doing because I was initially was like oh is it some kind of porn shoot what are
14:37.880 –> 14:45.720
you doing and and then it was rather obvious when I was because I was having to try and dry
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my my work and use the doorway because I was like you know trying to wait for it to dry and
14:55.800 –> 15:02.200
spraying it with hairspray to try and protect it they then came along and banged on the door
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because they didn’t do the smell of the hairspray I didn’t like because I was like I wasn’t gonna
15:05.480 –> 15:10.600
spray that in the side of the church but before then I was hearing them making all these demonic
15:10.600 –> 15:16.760
whispery noises and sort of obviously as part of the shoot it was like just like being you know
15:16.760 –> 15:22.760
sort of whispering and and and sort of sort of spooky whistles and stuff and I was like what the
15:22.760 –> 15:29.880
fuck are you doing it’s always seemed to be a bunch of satanists doing some kind of video or
15:29.880 –> 15:35.880
photo shoot isn’t there possibly clothing option or I don’t know though she seemed to be clothed
15:35.880 –> 15:41.720
but she had this big black robe on so they’re doing that sort of yeah and it’s just kind of weird
15:41.720 –> 15:45.880
because when they banged on the door it annoyed the hell out of me because I was like well I was
15:45.880 –> 15:50.840
like wrong door and it was like they obviously wanted me to go but they obviously worked out
15:50.840 –> 15:55.240
was there even though I wasn’t making any noise I was just trying to get trying to dry my work
15:55.240 –> 16:01.480
but what was annoying about that was they’re not supposed to be doing what they’re doing
16:02.520 –> 16:08.360
so I went back and banged on the door and left because you know I very much doubt they’ve got
16:08.360 –> 16:15.400
permission from English Heritage to do a a demonic satanic or whatever some kind of
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horror shoot or something in St Catherine’s Chapel because you know that’s
16:22.520 –> 16:28.680
sort of white but I don’t know it’s a sacred site I mean I would probably count as a sacred site
16:28.680 –> 16:32.840
even though I’m sure strictly it isn’t because it’s it was attached to the monastery to Dissolution
16:32.840 –> 16:38.360
but you know I’m sure they wouldn’t approve of that there so that was really weird
16:39.640 –> 16:45.160
and as I say I was fairly okay with them because they were waiting and I did I did a few pieces
16:45.160 –> 16:49.480
and I didn’t realise they were getting in the way because they were setting up they wanted the big
16:49.480 –> 16:54.040
window where I was drawing and then I was drawing another piece and before you’re trying to get
16:54.040 –> 17:04.600
these pieces down off the moundy thing without getting them wet so maybe do the classic thing of
17:05.160 –> 17:10.920
of letting the top of the the top of the book get completely wet and and then
17:12.920 –> 17:17.400
you know keeping them apart but I sort of sprayed them when they were sort of dry
17:17.400 –> 17:21.320
but I wouldn’t have had any of that if I was trying to be you know trying to be nice to them
17:21.320 –> 17:51.160
and then it was like oh what you’re doing a fucking demonic photoshoot so yeah that was weird
As I described it on the podcast “It’s raining, it’s pouring Old Nick is Snoring… Or seemingly having saucy phootshoots in remote chapels…”. I drew two pieces there. At first I was totally alone, but those Spaniards found the place, and kept coming back in and out, seemingly wanting me to leave and talking about ‘taking a few photos’.
I said OK thinking they were just taking photos of the chapel. I finished my second drawing -I think the one of the window. As I left a woman in a black robe arrived. Err…?
Turns out in my hurry to leave, I didn’t fix the Woody Pencil Votive piece. So I tried to do so sheltering in the other closed doorway…while hearing these weird demonic sounds and chants coming from the other side while the satanists (?) did their shoot.
They realised I was there and the satanists banged on the door. I banged back demonically three times and said ‘I know what you’re doing in there’ and left before they hexed me. I stumbled down the hill shsrpish into the fog…the whole episode was peak Folk Horror. A dramatic end to my day in Abbottsbury, Spanish Satanists doing photo-shoots – or rituals? The locals didn’t seem that bothered that someone was doing s Dennis Wheatley on the hill when I told them.
Thankfully the next days were a lot less dramatic, in fact rather more boring in fact…don’t worry, that didn’t last long!
NEXT: Ammonites in the Mist, The Most Boring Coastal Path In Britain and Viaducts and One Goes Mad In Devon
In This Series
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.1 – Uppy Downy Fail – White Nothe and Durdle Door
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.2 – Golden Caps and Big Willy Giants (Cerne Abbas)
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.3 -Satanists, Windy Beacons & Foggy Knolls
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.4 – Lyme Regis Fossils, Cannington Viaduct & Most Boring Coastal Walk EVER
- Jurassic Jaunt 3.5: Beer Dog Attack, Chapel Rewind & An Exhausting End
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