On penultimate day of our holiday we piled everthing in the car and headed off to Lyme Regis to give the Powder Monkey an experience of fossil hunting.

The weather was absolutely appalling, the rain never stopped until we were nearly there. Arriving in the town we found the car parks down by the seafront were all full so we had to park some distance away and yomp down the hill to the town centre whre we paid a visit to the Dinosaurland Museum to find out all about the local heroine Mary anning who first dug an Ichthyosaur out of the Jurassic coastal cliff face back in 1811.

From there it was down onto Monmouth Beach to hunt for fossils, though sadly a recent landslip had rendered part of the beach dangerous with Victorian landfill. The beach gets its name as it was here that the Duke of Monmouth landed in 1685 to lead a rebellion against his uncle King James II (Monmouth was the son of Charles II by his mistress Lucy Walter)

Well we didn't find much to take away but there were some gigantic ammonites to be seen in the rocks and before long lunch beckoned to we were off towards the town where we settled in the Royal Standard where for about £30 we enjoyed prawn, crab and beef sandwiches and local ales.

It was around this time that the Sun came out so we spent the afternoon on the sandy beach in the lee of the Cob, the breakwater made famous by Meryl Streep standing on it in the rain in The French Lieutenants Woman. Mab and the Powder Monkey went for a paddle and I crashed out only to wake with bloody sunburn!

Well after an iced cream it was back to the car for the trip to weymouth where we stayed at the Lodmor Premier Inn. So after a brief freshen up we hit the restaurant which was sadly dissappointing, I had the Cornish Pasty which was to say the least a bit dried up, although Old Nick's steak and ale pie looked quite nice as did Mab's steak. Mind you I think with a Brewer's Fayre you are often safest with the simplest dishes on offer.

then it was time to explore thge delights of Weymouth so we set off along the beach, Old Nick and the Monkey skimming stones as a locals demanded we stop throwing her beach away. Moving swiftly on to the amusement arcade much fun was had losing 10ps in one of those slidey things before heading back to the Hotel for a good snooze.