Bristol to Dorset for a couple of days with BdyB

For a Young-Old traveller or two, Dorset is an interesting place to go from Bristol. It is not really very accessible so better for a couple of days than a single day out. In the current (extraordinary) warm March weather, it can be a delight and, even in normal weather, a pleasure.
For instance:
Day one
Take the 0841 First Great Western (FGW) Weymouth train,
which accepts off-peak senior returns to Dorchester for £16-75 each. It passes - not very fast - through some of the finest railway country in Europe, particularly in the spring when most trees and hedges are still bare and views clear.
The first forty minutes out of Bristol follows the the valley of the Avon: tunnel and dramatic river glimpses between Bristol and Bath with the sad view of the the fine old Frys/Cadbury factory at Keynsham, now empty, closed by a multi-national. World Heritage Bath displays its trademark Georgian Terraces as a frame for its medieval Abbey.
After Bath, we leave the mainline to follow the canal which steps up the Avon towards the Kennet and London. The train goes under the canal three times: the first two involved Brunel in adapting the classical eighteenth century aqueducts spanning the narrow valley. Snaking along the wooded valley views of the high bridge come unexpectedly before the first brief stop (Freshford) apparently in the middle of empty wood bounded fields: the village, drifting down down the slope of aside valley to congregate with magnolia blossom around the pub and a stocky spired Cotswold stone Church, only comes into sight after we leave the station. Under the next aqueduct is Avoncliff Halt: the span itself is out of sight but a broad weir, gentle cottages and primroses in the still bare woods are good compensation.
Bradford-on-Avon is the last picture postcard Cotswold village before the train turns south under a utilitarian aqueduct into the junctions lands around Westbury. After Frome - itself a charming town but hidden from its rather decayed station - a short stretch of main line takes us to Castle Cary and the branch line south. The different rolling downs of South Somerset lead into Dorset. This classic  introduction to Hardy country , with stops at Yeovil and remote feeling Maiden Newton, takes us to Dorchester (West), where we were due at 10.48. Traveline gave us fifteen minutes to catch the bus at a stop seven minutes walk away.
The train was a bit late, the path unclear, the bus missed: beware of useful  Traveline . Little matter - Dorchester was pleasant enough for a hour's exploration though I am not sure the advice of the friendly Tourist Information Office to spend most of it seeking out the Roman town house. True it is well presented with lottery funded weather protection for fairly good mosaics but it was still in the frankly unattractive County Hall car park.
The ride on the bus to Bridport was simply magnificent: the narrow A35 Trunk road is a horror but not from the top deck of a bus creating an empty road over the high downs ahead (and a long if invisible tailback behind). The downs dwarf the little villages sunk deep in wooded valleys below and even on this sunny March day the bare wildness speaks of Tess's miserable stone picking - Hardy breathes through this landscape.

Forty five minutes later, dull sounding Bridport - think Bridgnorth, Bridgwater - proves in fact to be a delightful small town, with a generous High Street bounded by unusually thriving bookshops - new, bargain, charity, but also second hand and well stocked antiquarian - I found a Murray's 1859 guide to the Isle of White and a 1979 Ward Lock Guide to Dorset.

There was also, in a beam dominated grade II listed town house, a good cafe/restaurant  - the Beach and Barnicott - which itself put on literary dining evenings - a discussion over dinner of Edmund de Waal's "Hare with the Amber Eyes" was coming up on the next Tuesday.

Escaping Bridport's thin layer of suburbs, it was a couple of hours of chalked hilled, lamb entranced walk to get over to the classic Dorset village of Burton Bradstock. A prosperous post office shop, a delicately 'arts and crafts' restored cruciform mediaeval church, two good pubs; tulips and daffodils galore.

To drop down on this idyll in the pre-sunset glower to an inexpensive BdyB was fine conclusion to day one,

BdyB perhaps needs a little explanation, though surely it is an idea whose time has come. "Bed do your own Breakfast" is exactly what it says on the packet. It does not google yet so perhaps you are reading about it first here. The Old Pottery Annexe provides a double/twin ensuite room with the usual tea maker BUT also a small Fridge containing a pint of fresh milk and a pair of croissant. Cereals, bowls. plates and cutlery-give everything for a simple and time-flexible self made Breakfast. At £45 for acouple, it undercuts the standard B&B by twenty to thirty pounds sterling. I would love to hear of and will pass on other examples.

Quietly buried in a lane off the main road, it is only two hundred metres further up before we came out at a terrifying cliff edge with views of all Chesil beach to the left and a far as Lyme Regis, the Undercliff and Jurassic Devon to the right.

Day Two.

Too tired after day one, to go out after dark to appreciate the doubtless remarkable clear starlit, crescent moon night, we had a lazy 'do your own' breakfast to start the next day. The village shop provided bus information and a Guardian. Good news was the two hourly X53 Exeter - Axminster - Lyme Regis - Bridport - Weymouth double deck bus.

Plenty of opportunities to explore the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. We opted for a short circular walk before a bus to Weymouth. What a circular walk it is. Up over a steep style, across a downland meadow to Southover Beach NT. A pleasant looking cafe and over generous if at least grassed National Trust car park leads to a stoney tail end to Chesil Beach. It almost totally lacked drift wood for firemaking so we walked over the cliff path. An approachable gold braided Coast Watcher advised me about the outgoing tide, which in this mill calm weather was safe to swim - "cold, mind" he warned.

up and down double decker

Walking along the cliff top stretch of the South West path, we gathered what small sticks were to hand. A strictly sedentary couple told us it was 250 miles (400 km) to go to Minehead in North Somerset. We denied any such ambition and the next beach had everything we wanted. A boulder-built crossing of the little river proved an ideal drift wood trap; a previously used fire place gave more chunks of timber; the sun was hot; the tide low enough to give a sandy entry to the sea - the sea cold enough to guarantee a palm numbing very short swim; spiced lamb sausages could be cooked on the beach fire and there was time for a short sunbathe before the walk round to Burton Bradstock for the X53 bus to Weymouth and the train back home to Bristol. Sorry Weymouth - not much to say.