Wet Wipe Showers, Derelict Buildings & Ticks…

I often have my best ideas when I’m either driving to or from work. And usually I forget them as soon as I get out the car. Thankfully, this was one of the rare times I actually remembered! So here’s an account of the trip that was born from that idea in July 2011.

As part of mine and my friends love of Urban Exploring I devised a plan to take four days at the end of July to visit every ROC bunker in Dorset, camping between our stops.

So as the planning started, we soon realised that there’s only about 10 bunkers left in Dorset. We needed another county. Devon.

With our list of ROC’s and other miscellaneous sites we set off…

Day One

Our first stop: WW2 hide-out shelter

12:00pm – It was a bit of a later start than we had arranged, but we were soon on the road and at our first stop. Tesco! Plenty of junk food, pot snacks and camping supplies. Luckily, our first explores weren’t too far away, in Dorchester.

We knew from previous visits that the ROC in Dorchester was sealed, and sealed well. Unfortunately this was still the case so we headed across the other side of the town to a wooded area in amongst farmers fields. Here we’d find a bunker used by Auxilary troops to hide in and attack from during World War 2 if ever England was occupied by Germans.

Not a lot remains of the bunker, which is basically an Anderson Shelter sunken in the ground and covered with earth.

13:30 – By the time we got back to the car it was getting late in the day so we decided to pull our fingers out and head to Purbeck for Lulworth ROC and Worth Matravers ROC.

Squeezing in to Lulworth ROC

14:10 – Lulworth was rammed. It was camp bestival weekend and we were stuck with hundreds of middle-class mums in Range Rovers quing into the campsite. We finally got to Lulworth ROC and after battling with the weeds (again!) we got our photos.

15:20 – After a failed attempt at a cross-country lane over farmland in the Land Rover we went the long way round to Worth Matravers only to find the ROC was locked up tight. However, not tight enough for one of us to squeeze through and assess the bunker. Not worth it.

18:30 – So, after a few more rotton ROC bunkers we found ourselves still in Dorset, near Cranborne. So we set up camp in a random field beside a wood.

Day 2

A random field in Dorset would be our home for the night

09:00 – It’s safe to say we’ll never be camping in a random field ever again. The night was filled with Owl “hoots” and curious deers nuzzling our tents. However, there would be a greater reason, which wasn’t apparent yet…

10:30 – Our first port of call was the ROC at Sixpenny Handley, which, was conveniently situated on a campsite. After swiftly realising the bunker was seriously over-grown and right next to a family having their breakfast we decided to leave, well, after we’d used the campsite facilities!!

11:00 – Our next stop, Fontmell Magna ROC. Another massive hill to climb! Another impossibly over-grown compound! Note to self, must remember the garden sheers next time!!

12:30 – So, our first non-ROC of the trip came in the form of Bourton Mill in north Dorset. Driving around the site it was clear the place was an absolute shit-tip, graffiti everywhere, anything that could be smashed, was.

We didn’t hold much hope the site, but there was a real nice area in the middle of the main building. A waterfall crashing where a waterwheel would have sat. The colours and noise was pretty special and we spent ages trying to photograph it.

So… with that done, we headed in to Devon.

14:00 – Technically, we stopped in Somerset first, at my favourite explore of the trip, Tonedale Mill. Currently in mid-development in to apartments (such a shame!) it was a bit of a nightmare getting in.

Nosey neighbours galore and regular security patrols, coupled with “umpteen” CCTV cameras almost had us give up any attempt to get inside. But then, just like always, an opening presented itself to us.

Such lovely machinery still sits on the top floor of the mill. Before we could check out the other buildings we bumped in to security. I’m not sure who shit themselves the most!

16:00 – Time was now against us to get to any more locations today and after the first night we didn’t fancy sleeping in the wild again! So, out came the map and we headed to the closest campsite.

20:00 – After a bit of begging we were signed in to the campsite, tents pitched and bellies full of stir fry. There was a pub down the road so we had a wander and a few pints. Nice.

Day Three

09:00 – After a fantastic sleep and more than acceptable breakfast, all hell broke loose. Fucking ticks!

Our first night camping proved to be more than just a scary, noisy, animal filled night. Ticks had found their way in to our clothes, the truck, tents, sleeping bags, and worst of all… on our bodies. They were everywhere!

After horrifying our fellow (elderly) campers with screams of, “Shit, Fuck, Bugger, Twat” and an incident with a burning hot knife in my ass we packed up and headed to our first site of the day, Bampton ROC…

…however, after reading all sorts of horror stories on Wikipedia about people dying from ticks, fatal diseases and gruesome up-close microscopic pictures, we all concluded that we were going to die. Quickly pulling over, we all jumped out the Land Rover, pulling trousers down and turning our t-shirts inside-out. A quick look up, and we were all half-naked in the car park of a church!! haha!

Tired, Aching and desperately needing a poo!

11:00 – After a slight detour in to Tavistock to get insect-killing sprays and retardants we pulled up in a car park close to our next explore, the Dairy Crest factory in Great Torrington. Trousers round our ankles, covered in insect killer and stinking of TCP we happily sat eating ice creams whilst everyone must have thought we were mad!

14:00 – The Dairy Crest factory was a bit of a let down in all honesty. The site is massive and would have had huge potential a few years ago, unfortunately now it’s completely trashed and smashed.

With ROC’s well and truely off our radar now, we decided to head in to North Devon for our final explore before cutting the trip short a day early.

15:30 - Fremington Army Camp was a nice, relaxed explore – apart from the crippling need for a poo! – A lot of the outside buildings were locked but there was enough to keep us entertained for a couple of hours.

18:00 – And so that concludes our little exploring camping trip. We’re definitely doing it again, perhaps not Devon, maybe Dover way as it looks pretty interesting. So, until next time…