a curiosity shop of fossils – part 3

OK, so we have seen a lot of fossils, but we haven;t exactly found many have we!! so the next day – wed- sees us fossiling on the beach. the weather looks ok, we go to the museum on the waterfront to get an idea what we plan to find first. it is a lovely little free museum, so we spend a bit longer than planned there before moving out. and yay!! we find fossils. no dinosaurs for BB, and in fact no fabulous fossils of ammonites made of iron pyrites, but some ammonites and belemnites, and some fossilised wood! some sand castling, rockpooling and playing chicken with the waves. we were def having fun! a lovely relaxed beach day.

SB had been promised a trip to Monkey World, so thurs was the day for that. the weather was abysmal as we set out, so a bit worried whether it was going to be OK! but it was fine. a few whippings out of raincoats, but rain only set in really at the v end, so alls well! loved looking at the chimps, i loved the orangutans and babies. sb loved the lemurs, and bb the marmosets. the children in partic loved the climbing frames, both for the animals and for the children. we listened to a couple of the talks, and the keepers were v friendly and approachable. the orang talk was completely drowned by some v noisy gibbons calling! BB had a minor moment, as had run out of holiday money, and couldn’t buy a monkey, but such is life! she has a priority list – money, dinosaurs, chocolate and then mummy and daddy!!! another great fun day. when we got back to the campsite, the rain stopped and we saw a fab rainbow. so with some good weather i persuaded everyone to walk to the beach before dinner. we had an ace night walk along the beach before a quick dinner and a fall into bed.

friday i had my first proper sulk with the weather, it was still raining and i just wanted an easy day! we decided to go to the dinosaur museum in dorchester as that was what bb wanted to do. it was my least fav museum of the hols as the staff was the most grumpy, but actually otherwise was another fine little museum, with plenty to read and good for SB< who is enjoying doing museum leaflets and trails. not quite so for BB, whose idea it was! and i resented the lack of chairs for exhausted adults. but actually it has some good exhibits and is interestingly done. we had a debacle in the shop though, as the lady had cashed up, and i only had a 20 pound note or 86p, and sb wanted to spend 90. i was at the point of walking out, when the lady uncashed up and changed the note - i think she saw a fast disappearing sale! chris cheered me up with a cream tea yummy indeed!] and the girls had an icecream sundae. when we returned, we were invited down the beach with the campsite friends the girls had made, so did a bit of hammering of fossils. v happy to find some! sat and our last beach day, joined by my friend shaula. not seen each other for ages, so v happy to be catching up, chatting and fossiling in a lazy way! the weather was execrable actually, and in the end beaten off the beach into the cafe and then museum. SB and BB both got a self chosen book

girls happy with treats and declared last lovely day. that eve, sb organised all her campsite friends into making a curiosity shop, selling the unwanted stones and fossils, and they made £5, which wasn’t bad, and had a lot of fun doing it. they really both had a fab holiday, cycling, making friends and doing fun things as a family. i do love camping!!

home on the sun, stopping for too long at the royal signals museum, which was again a really fab museum, with lots of info on the ground floor – which again sb spent ages reading and doing a quiz, and interactive things on the second floor – bbs driving left me quite travel sick!! we could easily have spent longer there. but as it was we got home v late, thanks to the carpark arrangements known as the m25!!

so as you have all read, a really fab holiday had by all.