exhaustion, so we stopped by a main road and ate lunch under an elm to the roar of lorries and a nearby ‘drome. zcy zmh
… after Axminster began the quest for somewhere to spend the night. This proved fruitless, so at 7.30 we ate supper in the gutter of a main country road (the only flat place for the meths stove)—we had sardines, bread and stewed plums. Also coffee without milk or sugar. zcy zfd
Feeling fresh, and as the evening was lovely (also feeling rather mad), we biked on to what we hoped was Beaminster. Actually it was Charmouth. zcy zwr
Past here, in twilight, we made a halt and lay down under a hut’s side propped against a haystack, and after being relieved of our identity cards by the owner, we ‘slept’ here, getting colder and colder as the time went on. … zcy zcg zwn
Friday 31st
… we left at 6 o’clock, and had a cool but fairly lively ride to Beaminster, where we had to wait for ½ an hour for the shops to open. Today was the hottest yet. … zcy zwr zsh
After a rest for lunch, we went on, reaching chalk hills at 3.30. Having been very misdirected, we eventually found Cerne Abbas, complete with old carving of giant. The hostel was just foul. No cooking facilities, all dirt and smell and overfat women. zcy zss zgk
We fled, and ate supper in the field (liver) with a lab. boy from the Cambridge Engineering lab., who was on holiday and felt like us about the hostel. Luckily the dormitories weren’t too bad. … zcg zfd zgk
August
Saturday 1st
Crept away from awful hostel early, after breakfast in the field. A very stiff climb at first, and then all flat country … The journey was along two rivers, eventually reaching Wimborne and then along straight ribbon-developed road to Ringwood. Both sides of these towns was grand rolling wooded country. zcy zss
