The great explorers

Look at the chimney in this picture taken from where we live.

Above the chimney on the horizon is a wood.
In front of the wood, seemingly almost sitting on top of the chimney, is a faint blur which is exactly 10 miles as the crow flies from our flat.
It is the village of Kingston up on the Purbeck Hills, not far from Corfe Castle which is perched on the hill on the right of the picture.

For the past five months I have sat and looked at this view and wondered what it was like. Today we went to discover a new part of the world. Not being crows our journey was a bit further than 10 miles, but well worth the effort.




Across typicaly beautiful Dorset countryside, this is the approach to Kingston from Corfe Castle;






                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    and this is a close up of the church of St James whose tower marks the village from any distance.





More importantly, as in most good English villages, the pub, this one the Scott Arms, stands just below the church!










But no ordinary pub when you go round the back and sit in the garden and stare in awe at the view towards Corfe Castle with Poole Harbour and Broadstone beyond.

But, we didn't come to sit in a pub garden - well not yet anyway!





Off we went up the hill  which is steep, passing nosey sheep and views of Poole Harbour, until we could see the Jurassic Coast and sea on the other side of the Purbeck Hills.

We rested by a wood in which wild garlic grew in profusion and which later we discovered in our salad with our Dorset crab. At least they didn't add the bluebells!

And so, back down the hill to the Scott Arms which is a real discovery and where the food and beers are good.


For old explorers we hadn't done badly, although surprised at the number of other old explorers who all stopped for a chat.




Note for Eddie Harley.


If you wonder why I am climbing hills it is to get fit for golf. I have joined Canford Magna Golf Club which you can find on the internet and probably, one day, in the Guiness Book of Records as the oldest person ever to join a golf club: that's what I felt like on the way up the hill"!







Here's a picture of my new golfing partner, John, who plays like I do. As he said: "it's not the golf but the joy of being out here on a golf course that matters"; a phrase with which I agreed and which is used by all golfers when the ball doesn't go in the direction they though they had hit it!