You may need a passport for this walk.
Time to descend
Mobile Bar
Are we stopping here? Not today, but it is one of the best Wetherspoons in the country. Have you guessed where you are yet?
Are we going in here?
YES
Anyone got one of these in their garden?
Carry on walking, I’ve got to leave you now, visitors coming, hope you don’t get lost.
Do you like walks with a destination, such as lunch?
A Traication is when you go on holiday by train so you cannot take everything but the kitchen sink. Packing has to be undertaken with great planning. I cheat by having a huge bag of stuff at the headquarters of Team H, so I only have to stuff clothes, Kindle, sandwiches and water in my rucksack, though it’s still heavy. People do get on the train with suitcases big enough for a kitchen sink and I have seen women with rucksacks big enough for a commando training exercise. My main aim is to be able to get on and off the train and negotiate the underground.
You could spend hours on line getting the best bargains by booking a specific train or a journey split into several stages on the same route. A friend naturally assumed you had to get off the train and catch a different one so she was surprised to hear on the last stage she could have stayed on the same train all the way. Goodness knows who thinks up these ideas. My off peak cardboard ticket, bought well ahead at our friendly ticket office, is an off peak return, leave on a specific date and return within a month, worrying for your hosts in case you stay with them for a whole month! If they ask what time train I want I explain I just want to turn up and get on the next train going to Waterloo and I especially want the trains to be running. The day I sauntered into the station to buy my ticket it seemed very quiet, it turned out there were no trains running due to a trackside fire further up the line. On the news that evening was film of passengers evacuated off the train and walking up the track.
Fortunately the day of my journey all was going well. The current government pledged to bring the railways back under state ownership and South West Trains were one of the first to be reclaimed last year and sport new livery as South Western Railway. If you had a Brio wooden railway when you were a child you will recall the carriages linked on by magnet. Our trains work just like that… I was waiting for the 11.22am and at 11.10 am four carriages arrived. At this point passengers either rush to get on or stand in confusion in case a different train has slipped in. A few minutes later another four carriages roll in behind and click on. So there is plenty of time to get on the train and no worry which carriage if you are going to Waterloo. But all may not be well if you have a specific ticket. There were regular/annoyingly frequent announcements…
‘If you have an evening out return or a summer special extra cheap off peak and it does Not say 11.22am, you are on the WRONG train and liable to pay another £40.
On the final stage of my journey, London Victoria to Margate, it was my turn to make sure I was on the right carriage, the rear four carriages. The advantage of a London terminus is trains end up at the buffers so what was the first carriage is the last carriage so I should be okay. After every single station would be a reminder that the train was going to split and the stations recited. After our carriage had disgorged quite a few passengers and with the moment of the great split fast approaching, a couple now had room to spread out their picnic and sat back and relaxed. Then one of them thought to lean over the aisle and ask another passenger where the train was going. When she said Margate there was panic and a gathering up of the picnic. They were right at the back of the train when they should have been at the front. The young woman said to them ‘Don’t stop, just keep going till you get to the driver’s cabin .’
My return journey from Waterloo was simple. The train arrived at the buffers with fifteen minutes to spare so we could get on and relax. All trains stop at Bournemouth and this train was going to unclick in half and carry on to two different directions. You really needed to pay attention to the announcements because even before the chopping in half there were some stations with short platforms so you had to make sure you were on the right carriage.
‘If you are getting off at Remote Halt you will need to be in the front three carriages, if you are going to Forest Dene you must be in carriages two, three and four. Passengers wishing to alight at Littledene should be in odd number carriages except one and seven. Passengers for Old Milton please make sure you are in the even number carriages except for two and six.
Have you had any interesting train journeys lately?
While others were in Norwegian fjords or on African safaris, I ventured ten minutes walk away from home for my staycation. Back at Chez Tidalscribe Cyberson Two and DIL Two were ripping out the bathroom. Not as scary as it sounds as Interiors are their business and this was their 49th bathroom.
My holiday home was a seaside let, a top floor flat with a balcony – not alas that yellow house of character with the turrets. A search revealed plenty of Air B&Bs near my house, including next door ( a converted garage ), but I thought I should enjoy a cliff top experience. I wanted a cliff top house when we moved to Bournemouth, but few were available, let alone in our price range.
I know other female bloggers go solo round the world on motorbikes or yachts so it is not very adventurous to go home for Cyberson’s home cooked meals and to collect anything you have forgotten… and to water my plants… and the garden as the heat wave had continued unabated.
What made it different from home? I was nearer my beach hut and the open top bus stopped almost outside. I could have my breakfast on the balcony and watch the world go by. At any moment, however early, there was always a dog walker on the cliff or a jogger on the pavement or a cyclist on the road. There was also traffic on the coast road, it was much noisier than my quiet little road.
There are clifftop views such as lighthouses looking over wild waves crashing on rocks and houses with back gardens on the edge of cliffs. There are still houses right on the edge in Southbourne, but lots more have long since crumbled down with the sandy cliffs, leaving only the roses and shrubs that once grew in their garden clinging to the cliffside.
However, I still had a view and at night there was the black sea straight ahead and to the west the lights of Bournemouth and Swanage and early in the morning sunrise from the bathroom window.
Inside it was clean and tidy with everything you could want if you were actually living and cooking there. The décor was white, literally, from the paint work to the bedding and towels. The only items not white were the artificial lawn on the balcony and the impossible to lift dark blue pottery mugs the size of hefty jugs. Lucky I could pop home and get my bone china tea mug. The bed was very comfortable, the sofa not so. I managed to work the television and get the WiFi so overall a good experience and I still miss the patter of tiny feet – the slip slap of the early morning joggers before the traffic got busy.
Have you been on a Staycation or had any holiday let experiences, good or bad?
I’m back home with new pictures and new blogs …sometime… In the meantime here are a few snaps celebrating the fun of train travel and trying to capture amazing buildings that my parents and grandparents would not have seen on their commute to the office in London.
Citrus?
Two Dimensional?
How would you like a balcony here?
Would you like to live or work in any of these buildings? Perhaps you do!
Who do you like to chat to when you go shopping?
Spent too long chatting? Better check the time.
Time for me to go on a traication with only my phone. Find out where next week.
Can you translate the Latin or tell the time?
Cool off on a Breezer open top bus.
But where are you going?
Are we getting off here at Boscombe Pier? No.
At Bournemouth Pier? No.
Where are we?
And who is this?
Find out later.
This way?
Or that way?
Feeling cooler?
Don’t get lost
Ah, here’s a sign post…
How did you get here?
With a long walk up the road.
And where are you?
Breezer Bus 70 dropped us off at Alum Chine Beach and we walked up Alum Chine then up to Westbourne shops. Don’t worry, there are plenty of buses home from here, or you can retrace your steps back to the beach.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjdg1p97v0go
How soon did you guess the mystery statue?
If you are reading this I must have crawled out of the blog hole and my new computer has extended the digital hand of friendship to WordPress. Read about my Staycation soon.
Yes it really is that blue…
But sometimes smart phones don’t capture the moment – What I saw as I arrived at the cliff top – a snowy white yacht gleaming on a sparkling sea… I had to zoom in to my picture to see if I had imagined a boat…
We have our own Mount Rushmore – who would you like to see carved into our cliffs?
Be glad you are not a cactus…
Two days of glory and attention…
Then it’s all over for another year or two.
When you fall down a blog hole...
In the unlikely event you notice some absences on my part in July it will be due to summer projects or some projects. Forty one years ago people said ‘Pregnant?! What do you want another baby for, you have a boy and a girl?’ The answer was ‘So when he grows up he can do every home improvement imaginable, sort out all my technical problems, install a new computer and cook dinners.’ When he brought home his now wife and said she was a lighting technician and pyrotechnic expert, we knew life was going to be fun and he would have someone to help him with every project imaginable.
As we pass the the halfway mark of the year have you any summer or winter projects planned?
Today we are not getting on a boat, unless someone welcomes you on board their super yacht or fishing boat.
The old lifeboat station, now a museum.
But we are bird spotting today, not boat spotting.
Cool off with a paddle…
…then keep walking.
Have you spotted any birds yet?
What historic landmark building have you arrived at?
‘A giant wildlife mural has brought new colour and meaning to a Poole Harbour landmark, turning a toilet block into a tribute to global conservation. Unveiled on May 23 at Baiter Park in Poole, the artwork celebrates the area’s ecological importance as a wintering ground for migratory birds.‘
‘The mural is a collaboration between illustration students from Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) and the Bird and Recreation Initiative (BARI).
University students transform Poole Harbour landmark with vibrant wildlife mural
And if the walk was too much for you emergency help is at hand.
Sport is an obvious subject for discussion or avoidance at the moment. Football World Cup, cricket and Wimbledon. You don’t have to be interested in sport of any kind to enjoy the drama, or at least get some entertainment out of finding the news and your viewing schedule totally disrupted. The teeming thousands who venture abroad to support their country’s football team may not have been able to get tickets for the match, but more fun is to be found on the streets of the host city. Taking in the ambience and the experience, saying hello to Mum or your wife if you get to be interviewed by a television reporter. It all looks quite fun from the comfort of my sofa, but I would not like to be part of that seething mass of humanity, might not be able to find a nice quiet coffee shop.
Cricket looks very serene and I like the idea of stopping for tea, no need for hydration breaks. Wimbledon involves queueing early in the morning for lots of fans, part of the tradition.
Meanwhile the players themselves provide drama, suddenly dropping out of Wimbledon with stress fractures or maybe just stress, missing your country’s match against the favourites because you have a stomach upset. I can sympathise, having been struck with watering can shoulder, putting Zumba Gold or a swim in the sea in jeopardy.
While some are out, others are making historic comebacks. It’s not just players who are in and out. Football managers seem to resign every week whether their team is winning or losing, thus heralding much discussion among the commentators in the TV studio, though not as much talk as the English cricket captain caused by resigning in the middle of batting.
Politics rears its ugly head in sport, though sport is supposed to bring people together and forget this country doesn’t let women play sport, that country is executing people back home and your hosts are going to arrest and deport you at any moment.
But it’s all good fun and if you don’t want to venture far from home, but are fed up with sitting at home, get yourself down to the nearest club or pub with a big screen and meet up with like minded people. Here you will be filmed for Breakfast Television giving your predictions, then filmed by the Evening News yelling and cheering and hugging everyone.
Our team won last night – at the last moment… I only saw the first kick and the end as I was watering the garden… but apparently I saw the best bits.
Have you enjoyed any big sporting moments lately or are you going into hibernation or aestivation for the next couple of months?
