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There was no blog from me yesterday as – despite the weather – we were busy. It’s not that we did lots of things, exactly the opposite. We only visited one place, but we were all taken aback by how long it absorbed us and what time we left. Where did we go? Well, the weather forecast wasn’t great, so we decided it would be an ideal time to visit the tank museum at Bovington. This is military, not water (or fish) tanks, and it’s quite a place. If you’re interested in history and military history especially, it’s a fascinating place for several reasons. It’s not just the fact it tells the story of the tank as a weapon, from the original World War 1 machines to the present day, it’s the that it has an amazing archive of recorded stories and paper and physical records of the people who fought (and sometimes died) in these machines. A glorification of war it isn’t.

The museums WW2 German Tiger tank. This machine’s in working order so can be used as part of the annual ‘Tankfest’ event. When you see these monsters close up and compare then to allied tanks of the time, you can see why they inspired fear.

Today (Monday) the weather was even worse than yesterday. The plan was to revisit Weymouth and check out Portland and as time’s moving on I arranged to leave early and do some exploring by rail. Firstly by catching a train from Wareham to Bournemouth before making my way West to catch up with the others. Here’s a couple of pictures from my travels.

Bournemouth station possesses one of the railways great overall roofs, although today’s torrential rain and the leaks it exposed proved that this listed building could do with some TLC! On the left a SWR set has split, with the front train having left for Weymouth, whilst the rear set waits to return to London. On the right a Cross-Country service prepares to return to Manchester Piccadilly.
Rather more watertight is the roof over the bay platform at Bournemouth. Here’s 450075 arriving with a service from Winchester.
Nearby Poole station’s rather more basic, although it still enjoys a frequent service. 444023 calls with a service to Weymouth.

Having rejoined the family at Weymouth we braved the weather to drive over to Portland – famous for its stone – and lighthouse. None of us had visited before and I have to admit to being rather disappointed, but the weather didn’t exactly help. That said, this view looking back to the mainland and Chesil beach is rather spectacular, even in today’s conditions.

We did drive all the way down to Portland Bill and the lighthouse but when we found that the Crown Estates had taken over the carpark and were charging £3 for an hour we decided ‘bugger that’. I’m sure the Royal purse is well stocked enough without our offering.

Instead, we headed back to Weymouth, a place the family have rather fallen in love with. It’s an interesting mix of old and new. Side streets and buildings dating from the 1600s contrast with a marina full of £ms worth of yachts and motorboats. One things we spotted was this supposed ‘souvenir’ from the civil war, although I have my doubts about its veracity.

Now we’re back at ‘home’, relaxing before tomorrow. The weather’s meant to be at its crappest tomorrow, not that it’s a problem for me as I’m going to have to stay at home and write for a living whilst the others venture out. Let’s see how the day unfolds…

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