Although this was originally planned as a trip with Mrs. M changed circumstances meant that it was to be a solo trip. Before heading south I needed to make a short detour into Banbury to drop off Mrs. M's daughter who was staying with us. All went well until we reached the end of the drive and drove into traffic chaos; obviously there was a problem on the M40. I headed towards Claydon (as no one else was) and then turned off towards Appletree heading towards Chipping Warden. Ominously we passed a sign advising "Road Ahead Closed" and sure enough, about 500 yards further on, with no opportunity to make a detour, it was; fairly typical of the chaos caused by HS2 construction. A quick about turn and we reached Chipping Warden and set off towards Banbury but just before the Chacombe turn we joined a queue for the M40 junction, about a mile away. As the traffic edged forwards we turned off to Chacombe but arriving in Middleton Cheney there was another queue so we set off through the village and into Banbury on the Overthorpe road which was "queue-free". Given the M40 situation the M40 / M42 / M5 route which I had been considering was a "non-starter" so, after filling up with petrol, I set off across country for Cheltenham (thus avoiding the daily queue at the now demolished Air Balloon roundabout) and joined the M5 there and eventually reached Lyme Regis around mid-day. Unfortunately due to a road closure access to the Holmbush Car Park was through the narrow streets in the centre of the town and on arrival it was obviously very busy; I only saw 2 spaces but that was 1 more than I needed so I parked up, paid up and walked down to The Cobb. As is normal on my visits here the tide was out and, on this occasion, the promenade was full of holidaymakers. I loitered for about an hour but took no images of note and decided to head off to Weymouth where I had booked into the Rembrandt Hotel for 2 nights. I had a walk along the promenade into the town and had a couple of pints before returning to the hotel for the night, dining on a very pleasant fish & chips in the restaurant.
The plan for day 2 was to drive out to Durdle Door and then return to Portland Lighthouse, so that's what I did. This was far from a successful trip as it rained for most of the morning but it did mean that I was one of about only 3 people on the beach. After paying £10 for 4 hours parking (about as steep as the steps down to the beach IMO) I set off....in the wrong direction as there was now a thick fog enveloping everything. After a quick "about turn" I was on track and about 20 minutes later was cutting a pretty lone figure on the beach; at one point I was the only one there! I decided to experiment with some long exposures but the resultant images were useless as the lens was continually being covered in rain / sea-spray. I also took a few images on my phone but after about 40 minutes trudged back up to the car (and yes, it is a VERY steep climb with a camera bag and tripod on your back!) A couple of foreign tourists asked me if it was worth going down from the car park given the weather; my advice was "as you're unlikely to be here again then definitely yes!"...and off they went hopefully thanking not cursing me.
I drove back to Portland in increasingly bad weather and when I arrived at the Lighthouse it was pouring down but after about an hour sat in the car I ventured out and took a few images, none of which were very good, so I messed around with them in Snapseed and there are some in the Dorset Gallery. Returning to Weymouth I walked into town and had a pint in the Red Lion by the harbour and grabbed a pasty on the way back to the hotel for a "takeaway" dinner. Breakfast in the hotel in the morning and back to Cropredy with the "top down" nearly all of the way on a beautiful sunny day....not the best of timing!