Tom and Izzy had a 2 week October half term so we booked a property through Cottages.Com for a week to go and explore Dorset which is a county we had never really been to. Our cottage was available from the Friday so I left with two tired kids who had just participated in the School’s annual cross country and Stuart travelled on his own straight from work.

The property was a barn conversion and was stunning although it did lack some basics such as……. enough cutlery, matching cups, a shower door which closed properly etc. However, it wasn’t expensive so we didn’t really feel we had a reason to complain. Also, it was set in some beautiful countryside and had a fire-pit in the middle of the lounge!

^{Our Cottage for the week}

Day 1 – New Forest

We struggled to find much information about the New Forest so popped to a Tourist Information Centre where we were told we had to buy a map to access the trails. Everything seemed to be about what you were ‘not’ allowed to do rather than what you could do. We are used to visiting the Forest of Dean which is only 30 minutes from were we live and have always found it so welcoming with information freely available.

We went for a cycle through the forest which was OK but we probably wouldn’t visit again – but we are spoilt living near to the Forest of Dean.

^{Cycling through the New Forest}

Day 2 – Durdle Door, Corfe Castle and Old Harry Rocks

We started by heading out early towards Durdle Door because Stuart had learned about it during his geography lessons and wanted to visit! We walked over to the ‘Door’ and looked at it from the cliff top.

There were people in the sea swimming underneath the arch. We walked down to the shingle beach to get a closer look. There was a cove to the left of the arch which we also wandered down to.

^{The beach and the cove}

We had learned that there was a fossilised forest on one of the beaches so decided to go and find it. We walked along the beach which was quite difficult as it was all loose shingle and climbed up a path to the clifftop on the other-side and followed the signs to the fossil forest. However, when we arrived at the steps down to the forest they were closed for repairs as they were unsafe . We sat on the top of the cliffs admiring the views and could just see them on the beach below. It didn’t matter as the walk was worth it as the views were spectacular.

We headed back to the car as our next stop of the day was Corfe Castle.
It is a National Trust property and the car park had a fee but was free if you were an NT member – so we decided to join up as there were lots of NT properties in the area. We walked up to the castle and the kids wanted to do the quiz so spent most of the time hunting for clues.

On the walk back to the car we took a detour and had to cross a river using stepping stones.

Corfe Castle is definitely one of my favourite castles in England.

Our final stop was Old Harry Rocks. We parked up and it was quite a bit of a walk to the headland and Tom and Izzy were rather tired at this point. We got there and and had good views of the cliffs. Stuart was convinced he was going to fall off the cliff so literally sat 200m away from it with the kids whilst I took a photo.

Day 3 – Isle of Wight

We had booked for us and a car on an early morning Ferry from Lymington and left our cottage so late that we almost missed the Ferry! I was actually surprised Stu agreed to this as he doesn’t like boats so I was really excited we were visiting the Island. Luckily it was a calm morning and it was only a 40 minute crossing. We stood out on deck as we sailed out of port.

Our first stop of the day was The Needles. A group of chalk rocks and a lighthouse. There is also a battery there and a tunnel you can walk through for good views of the rocks which the kids enjoyed.

We didn’t stay long as we had a return ferry already booked so quickly drove to the South of the Island to have a quick play on a beach. We were spoilt with the weather as the sun was shining and the Isle of Wight beaches are stunning. The beaches were quiet with hardly any people at all.

^{Southern coast of the Isle of Wight}

Next, we thought it would be fun to visit the highest point on the Island, just so we could say we’d been there! At this point the weather closed in and the wind picked up.

Our final stop was Bembridge Windmill – the only windmill on the Isle of Wight. As we had joined the NT entrance was free. We didn’t want to stay long but the kids wanted to do the treasure hunt where you had to locate ‘little millers’. We found them all bar one!!! To this day we have no idea where that last miller was hiding!

We had wanted to find a red squirrel but only spotted some dead ones which had been run over on the roads – decided that didn’t count. We headed back to the ferry for our return crossing. We loved Isle of Wight – and probably would go back for a longer stay.

Day 4 – Brownsea Island

We wanted to make the most of our NT membership so decided a trip to Brownsea Island was in order – besides, as we hadn’t spotted a red squirrel on the Isle of Wight we had read Brownsea was full of them.

This involved another boat trip (but only a little one) and we were on Brownsea. I think we were there at the perfect time, the sun was shining, the trees were turning and it was beautiful. Also, as we were the first boat onto the Island it was so quiet. Within a few minutes we saw our first red squirrel and after an hour the novelty of seeing red squirrels had definitely worn off! There were loads!

We did a bit of Geo-caching (had to find a geo-cache on the island) walked over to the coast and just had a really lovely day.

When we got back to the cottage it was only right we put the fire-pit to good use and toasted marshmallows with the kids!

Days 5 and 6 – Beaches

Unfortunately Stu didn’t have a full week of holiday so he needed to return to work. We therefore decided to just chill out a bit. We visited some of the local beaches and despite it not being particularly warm Tom and Izzy were in the sea.

We really enjoyed Dorset – hadn’t realised just how much there was to do and would love to go back one day.

_{October 2015}