GRIMSTONE — Another glorious day, though a bit chilly first thing. I left Exeter the only way I knew how—via the M5. I exited at the next junction though and headed towards Sidmouth. Due to a warning that the route I intended to take was closed I decided to visit Bicton Park, a botanical garden, in order to give the accident or breakdown or whatever time to be cleared.

I walked around the gardens for a hour or so. Probably not the best time of the year to see the gardens at their best but the trees (they have a great collection of conifers) were impressive.

My next stop was at Lyme Regis for some lunch. I parked at the top of the hill and walked down to the beach to discover that the town centre was still quite some walk away. Thankfully there were some take-away vendors plying their wares along the beach front so I walked off a polystyrene container of chips climbing the hill back to the car.

I continued along the coast ’til just before Weymouth where I headed inland towards Dorchester and Maiden Castle. Maiden Castle is a large Iron Age hill fort and I was quite surprised by its size—the aerial photographs I’ve seen don’t do it justice. From the road it doesn’t look all that big until you start to climb to the top and are standing on the inside rampart looking out over Dorchester. I think it took me the best part of an hour to walk the whole way around the castle.