What is the point of carrying waterproof over-trousers……….?

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What is the point of carrying waterproof over-trousers……….?

……...If you have them in your cycle pannier bags but then never bother to put them on when it starts to rain?

We both muse over this question as we cycle back up the hill out of Lyme Regis and over to Charmouth where Bryony is waiting for us at Newlands Leisure Park.

The rain is lashing, relentless, cold and straight in our faces, borne on a fierce howling wind that causes us severe wind chill. The deluge starts so rapidly, without warning and whilst we are wearing our waterproof jackets by chance, our legs are unprotected. Trousers are soaked through to the skin within seconds. Waterproof over-trousers seem pointless. By the time we have struggled to put them on……… !

The long slog back to Charmouth up the main road is made worse by torrents of road surface run off and mists of vehicle spray. Thank heavens for ‘turbo assist’ on our E Bikes, for all of a sudden, this bike ride is no longer ‘fun’!

We’d spent the morning walking Stonebarrow Hill beach to the east of Charmouth, fossil hunting (see our previous post) and so feeling somewhat energised on our return to Bryony, we decided to do the five-mile cycle ride to Lyme Regis this afternoon.

Now who amongst us wouldn’t want to visit what has been described as ‘The little pearl of Dorset’? A historic seaside town and fishing port, of steep streets and Georgian architecture, with a history starting in AD 774 when it was a manor granted by King Cynewulf (he was a Saxon king) to Sherborne Abbey. What a tumultuous history and economic rise and fall followed! A Royal Charter from Edward 1^st in 1284, an important port in the 13^th century, the building of the famous Cobb creating a protective harbour, sheltered form the SW gales. By 1780 it was a centre of shipbuilding and had a port larger than that of Liverpool.

When the civil war reached the south coast, the port and town found itself besieged by Royalists in 1644. The Duke of Monmouth landed in 1685 in an effort to take the crown from his Uncle King James II and after the failure of the later Monmouth rebellion at Sedgemoor, 23 rebels were returned to Lyme Regis and hung and quartered on the very beach where Monmouth had first stepped ashore. A point being made to the townspeople perhaps?

For one of us, a true Humanities buff, it’s all great stuff to explore. And then there is the famous Cobb where Louisa Musgrove fell from the steps in ‘Persuasion’ and where many oft stroll now, trying to channel their inner ‘French Lieutenants Woman’! Here in Lyme, Jane Austen stayed and wrote to her sister describing her joy of bathing, walking the Cobb and of dancing at the local Assembly rooms. One of us, a keen Austen fan, is secretly beside himself!

Now, Lyme Regis is at the heart of the World Heritage Jurassic Coastline, where Mary Anning discovered the famous Ichthyosaur skeleton in local cliffs in 1819, something of course, that piques the interest of a geographer/geologist and biologist/geographer. All these fossil shops to browse in, the local museum and of course the famous Boat Building School down at the quayside. So much to look forward to this afternoon.

It isn’t our best idea to be honest! Probably overambitious given the parlous state of the weather. And, like the dim-witted newbies we are, we don’t fully take on board the implications of it being half term. After all, our own children left home some time ago and the rule of our lives by the passage of term times and holiday times has long gone.

Lyme Regis is heaving. Terrifyingly so. Throngs of peoples fill every conceivable space within the town and sea front area. It is genuinely horrendous, like something out of some apocalyptic film about a deadly virus let lose across a nation! You know, that first fifteen minutes of the film, the scene setting bit, when people go about their normal business and activities, unaware that they are being stalked by a deadly virus.

There is no social distancing. No-one has the space on any walkway to actually create a 2m gap between themselves and anyone else. Hemmed in by parked cars, queues at entrances to take away shops and cafes and by people just ambling around, social distancing is out of the window and we can’t find anywhere to escape. Perhaps we are paranoid, but to be truthful we felt as if people weren’t really worrying about social distancing anyway. Some wore masks, many didn’t. People were on holiday and normal inhibitions had been thrown to the wind, or so we felt.

Everyone had walked the beaches earlier in the morning on the falling tide and now every man, woman, child, protesting teenager and dog had arrived in Lyme! We abandon the idea of getting a bite to eat and after less than ten minutes in the main high street, we are out of there.

Lesson learned. The history, Georgian ambiance, fossil shops and quayside will have to wait for another time. A pity, for under normal circumstances, a stroll around Lyme Regis and out along the Cobb is a rather civilised affair! One of us leaves very disappointed that he hasn’t been able to visit the Lyme Regis Boat Building School!

Back at Bryony, once again, the heating is turned up to 22C, the pull-out bed frame is turned into temporary clothes drying rack and we again promise ourselves to sort out the shower cubicle with an extending tensioning rod, so that we can turn it into a wet locker like you find on yachts. Wet cagoules can be hung in it to dry out on future tours.

We still have the Sunday papers to finish and some rather yummy chocolate covered oat and raisin biscuits with hot cups of tea take away the pain of the afternoon’s epic cycle ride.

Lyme Regis is to be saved for another time when the schools are back and it is out of season!