A SUMMER'S DAY IN DORSET

I decided to spend my summer holiday in 2004 camping in Dorset. I found an excellent campsite in old parkland just outside Blandford Forum. It was over 30 years since I had last been in Dorset. Pioneer Camp was offered a site in East Chaldon - a long old meadow lying beneath the Five Marys - a line of tumuli on a narrow chalk ridge. I spent a very happy fortnight there as a sports organiser. So, on the first day of my holiday I revisited that place of happy memory. My circular walk from Winfrith Newburgh took me to Lulworth Cove. As I toiled up the steep cliff path from Lulworth to Durdle Door I was passed, sad to say, by a large party of schoolgirls on an end of term jaunt. They were nice, friendly girls. Several of them paused for a few words and two even guessed I was an old Geography teacher interested in nature. It brought back happy memories of all those affectionate exchanges I had with sweet young things on Geography fieldtrips.

From Durdle Door I walked down a delightful dry valley in the chalk hills to East Chaldon. I had eagerly anticipated this section of the walk as it was here, all those years ago, that, late one evening, I first saw glow-worms. The Five Marys were still there! I walked happily along the ridge to Winfrith enjoying the fine views over the Frome Valley to the north.

On my way back to Blandford I stopped at Winfrith Heath - a remnant of the Wessex heaths that so fascinated Thomas Hardy. I prowled through the heather and gorse with a purpose. I stood still as at last I heard the creaking 'tchir-r' call I was hoping for. There they were - two Dartford Warblers in a gorse bush - a male and a female. What a distinctive warbler the male is with its rufus breast and cocked slate tail.

Before returning to the camp site I stopped in Blandford to buy groceries. As I crossed the footbridge over the magnificent river Stour I was approached by two small boys. They were very excited. One of them carried a huge rainbow trout. I could see from their discarded rods that they had been fishing in a fast flowing millrace. The dark skinned boy holding the trout said proudly, "Look what I’ve just caught." He raised it up for me to view. "It wasn’t floating dead in the water?" I asked sceptically. "No. Look, it’s still wriggling." So it was. "It’s got a stickleback in its mouth," said the other lad. The mouth was forced open for me to see. "Is it the biggest trout you have caught?" I asked. "It‘s my first trout," replied the triumphant fisherman, "and I’m going to have it cooked for tea."

The two boys had good news. They had just caught, all by themselves, a really huge fish. They just had to tell someone - even if it was only a down-at-heel, old codger wearing a battered trilby that they did not know from Adam.

As I sat outside my tent on what in truth was a rather cool and windy evening I reflected upon a good day. I especially thought about the two small boys so excited by their accomplishment. They just had to tell someone..... . It is a pity that I am not more enthusiastic about the great accomplishment of Jesus - so excited about it that I just have to tell others. Paul was. He wrote: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Rom1v16.

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