I headed east over the Easter weekend, and met up with some vanlife friends in Dorset. The venue for the meet up was Kimmeridge Bay, a beautiful little village near the coast on the Isle of Purbeck.
The place is steeped in history, and the village features perfect thatched cottages that wouldn’t be out of place on a chocolate box somewhere. The fields, hills and ridges were alive with colour. The yellow of the oil seed rape through to the bluebells lining the many footpaths that criss-cross the area. It was great to have such perfect weather.
So I met up with Bry, Mouse and Manuel as planned, but shortly after we was joined by an unexpected guest. Martin from the Vansolo YouTube Channel turned up to join the party. I have featured some of Martins videos before on this site, but never actually got to met him until now, so it was great to finally meet face to face for the first time.
On Easter Sunday I went for a 5 mile walk along the ridge and coastline with Mouse and Manuel. The weather was perfect, the views were stunning and the sea was twinkling in the sunlight. All was well with the world! The Jurassic Coast that Dorset is famous for stretched out for miles in front of me, before giving way to Portland Bill on the horizon to the west.
It was one of those rare days when the village of Tyneham was open to the public. Tyneham was taken over by the army during World War 2, but they never gave it back, and is still used for military training today. It is usually off limits to the public as it is on MOD land, but occasionally they allow public access to look at the now deserted buildings of the “ghost” village.
That evening saw us sit round a campfire in the quarry at Kimmeridge, discussing all sorts of things, and generally putting the world to rights, before retiring to our vans just after sun down.
Easter Monday dawned clear and dry again, and Martin (Vansolo) departed early to go and explore more of the Dorset and East Devon coastline. I spent the day lounging around in the sun, and getting some shots of the scenery for the video above.
On the way back to Devon, I passed a small historic church at Whitcombe, near Dorchester. Curiosity got the better of me, so I had to go and investigate and do some filming, in case I wanted to use it in the video.
Just looking at the church you could tell it was old. A plaque in the doorway of the church explained it was no longer used for worship and was now owned by the Churches Conservation Trust. There has been a church on the site since 966, in the reign of King Athelstan, but the main part of the church that we see today was built in the 1100’s (with later additions).
I’m not really a religious person, but I do love old buildings, so to be in a building that is over 900 years old was pretty special. You could just feel the history, and I couldn’t help think about the numbers of people that had passed through the church over the years, and what they would have made of the world today.
After shooting some video of the church I hopped back into the van and made my way back to Devon. Overall it was a fantastic weekend, with great company, and the weather couldn’t have been better.
As you will have no doubt noticed above, I have complied a video blog (vlog) of the weekend, so let me know what you think in the comments below, or on the video page itself on YouTube.
Also, below is a selection of photos from my time in Kimmeridge. Enjoy! :)
Beautiful photos Matt. It was a great weekend, made very special by seeing you and Martin there. Be well mate