Last day

The last day of our short break dawned clear and frosty. I should have been up before sunrise, but our bed was so warm and comfortable that I found it hard to drag myself away from it! Eventually the lure of the wild was too much, and I arrived on the heath just as the sun peeked over a low bank of cloud - once again all alone. Magnificent!

Home for breakfast and to pack all our belongings into the car, and then we all returned to the heath as Chris wanted to try and get a good image of a Dartford Warbler. Unfortunately after a short time he realised he'd left something behind, so we had to return to the cottage rather quickly - the Dartford Warbler remained elusive!

We then drove south to Tyneham, a village that was evacuated during the Second World War so that the area could be used for military training. The village has been deserted ever since, but the ranges are open more frequently now and it's become something of a tourist attraction. There was a very interesting display recounting the history of the families  who were evacuated, and whose names are commemorated in the church. We then walked down to Worbarrow Bay - beautiful sunshine but decidedly cool in the wind, though this hadn't deterred the stonechats and rock pipits.

After a very late lunch / afternoon tea in Wareham we set off for home. We made a navigational error fairly early on and got stuck in the rush hour traffic through Poole and Bournemouth - horrendous. We had intended to travel via Banbury and Oxford, but an accident was causing long delays so we continued on the A3, and then headed off on a rather devious route to avoid the worst of the M25 which took us through Windsor Great Park and Datchet - much more interesting than the motorway. We finally arrived home around 8.30pm - fortunately Lizzy had ordered a take away so we didn't have to cook supper!