On Friday morning, 31 May, we picked up our rental car (a Peugeot 2008, 2019 model) in Brighton and headed west.

After a short stop in Portsmouth for lunch and to get a UK sim card (so good to be connected to the world again) we continued on to Swanage and the tiny hamlet of Acton which is where our first Air BnB accommodation was.

Our car’s GPS took us on a route which meant we caught a chain ferry from Poole to Studland, near Swanage. Although this was unexpected it was a bonus as it saved us approximately 20 miles extra driving. (Yes, in the UK they still use miles, instead of kilometres.)

Swanage is in Dorset which is where the author Enid Blyton spent her holidays and drew inspiration for her Famous Five books, hence the title of this post.

Our accommodation was a studio/cottage which was likely a converted barn/garden shed at the back of the owners cottage. It was small but had all we needed, including a lovely garden where we sat in the afternoon and morning sunshine.

Not far from where we stayed was an amazing place called Old Harry Rocks – about a half hour walk to these amazing cliffs.

The next morning dawned bright and sunny and we woke with the birds, or before them I think. We headed off for a walk around the area, getting lots of fresh air and working off more of the jetlag.

After breakfast we headed a couple of miles down the road to Corfe Castle – or more accurately the ruins of Corfe Castle. The castle was built in the eleventh century by William the Conqueror.

Hot tip: being a member of Heritage New Zealand gets you free or discounted entry into National Trust places in the UK. Corfe Castle gave us free entry. Already paid off 2/3 of our NZ memberships.

We loved wandering around the ruins and learning more about the history of the castle.

After lunch in a pub at Corfe Castle (can’t recommend the food, over-priced burgers) we continued our drive west, stopping in Bridport (aka West Bay) where Broadchurch was filmed. What a cute little place! They are doing a lot of reclamation work on the beach, either side of the port, as it seems there has been flooding and we saw a massive slip on one beach where a sizable part of the cliff had collapsed.

After our stop in Bridport we completed our day’s travel in Torquay.