I think it's fair to say that despite less than perfect weather, those who attended enjoyed themselves. The weather became damp, windy and finally sunny before reverting to wet again over the weekend though we neither allowed it to dampen our spirits or blow our enthusiasm away.

On Friday evening we met and agreed the timetable for Saturday while eating in the Italian restaurant in Dorchester. It was agreed I'd lead them by bike to the Tank Museum at Bovington about 12 miles from Dorchester. It rained but we continued through the wet to reach our objective and after a quick lunch split up to examine the war machines.

While I can appreciate the engineering skills and the need for protection of soldiers, I'm still of the opinion that tanks have one purpose - they're killing machines and I personally didn't enjoy looking round the place - it just isn't my scene. However, as guide to the group I went along with the others and did enjoy the bike ride - only 26 miles but in good company. On the way back we took in the Church of St Nicholas at Moreton, which has the most exquisite engraved windows replacing stained glass and other windows blown out by bombing in World War II. The artist is Sir Laurence Whistler. We visited the grave of another Lawrence, T.E. Lawrence better known as Lawrence of Arabia who worked at Bovington Camp and died riding his Brough Superior motorbike near the camp. We passed his cottage, 'Cloud's Hill' going to the tank museum.

Saturday, we dined at the Black Dog, same as last year, and I enjoyed one of the nicest plates of ham, eggs and chips I've ever encountered - delicious. They also gave us the space to have our story session after the meal. I read my short story, Waltzing Matilda which seemed better received by the group than it was by the readers on Big Closet - I decided I wouldn't put myself out again to share our fun with the great unwashed. Five comments from over 800 hits strikes me as a less than enthusiastic response to the time I gave to preparing and posting it.

Sunday, I led our merry band to the west of Dorset, to the views from Portesham hill and the Hardy Monument, which is dedicated to the memory of Sir Thomas Hardy, who was Nelson's flag captain at Trafalgar. From there we went to Abbotsbury, on the way enjoying the vista of the Chesil beach, and the Fleet, a lagoon separated by it from the English Channel and where Barnes Wallis and his team produced the prototype of the bouncing bomb which was later used by the RAF 'Dambuster' attack on the Ruhr valley.

After a lunch at Abbotsbury we set off to West Bay and spent a pleasant hour eating ice cream and wandering around the place. Then off to Lyme Regis, which has been a literary place ever since Jane Austen visited in the nineteenth century and used it as a setting for her novel Persuasion, the Cobb, part of the harbour wall is used in John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman, so to be visited by four authors from BC seemed appropriate.

Lyme Regis is on part of the Jurassic Coast and has been famed for its fossils since Mary Anning found one of the first pleisiosaurs and many other fossils and won a place of respect amongst the male dominated world of palaeontology. A century earlier, it had been the site of the landing of the Duke of Monmouth and some of his rebels, sparking the Monmouth Rebellion which was mostly confined to Dorset, Somerset and parts of Devon and which was severely punished by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord George Jeffreys who was sent to make an example of the rebels, giving rise to the appellation, The Bloody Assizes, held mainly in Dorchester and Taunton. The beach at Lyme is still called Monmouth Beach and lies to the west of the cobb.

After Lyme we returned to Dorchester and had readings in the Borough Gardens, a public park complete with clock and bandstand created in the Edwardian period and recently restored to their former glory. Here we listened to the first three parts of Gaby Book 9 and a short story I scribbled that morning.

Retiring to a local hostelry for refreshment, we dined listened to some more readings and after sharing out the cake that Ben had very kindly made to celebrate the event, we declared the 2011 Gabycon over.

Those of you who missed it, should start saving now for next year's the siting of which we haven't quite decided, but there is still loads of Dorset to explore - hint, hint.

Angharad.

http://www.moretondorset.co.uk/moreton/st_nicholas_church.php