It was finally time for us to disembark after 14 days. Our plan was to go to Blu for breakfast but when we got downstairs, they had already started calling walk-offs so we knew it would be a short time before our group was called so we waited about 15 minutes and got the notification. However, that message had not gotten to the luggage area as our group was still cordoned off. But a friendly agent told us if we could see our bags, she would get them for us, and she did. We walked to the taxi stand and the driver was miffed we were only going to the Enterprise Rent-a-Car, saying "you could just walk". We told him we did not want to so he silently took us there, probably angry he lost his top place in the taxi rank for a small fare and not a 100 GBP-plus ride.

Enterprise was not ready with a car and it took awhile before they brought around a black Mercedes SUV. It had less than a half-tank of petrol in it and the agent said he would mark it as 1/4 full, but we later learned he did not and did not file any paperwork showing scratches on the car or give us a rental agreement. Janie climbed into the driver's seat on the other side of the vehicle and we were off for five days in the south of the UK.

We had made the decision the night before to skip Salisbury and Cranborne Chase and instead drive through the New Forest. As a result, we probably did not have to rush off the ship because we made good time getting to Corfe and arrived a half-hour before the castle was scheduled to open. That gave us time to explore the little town and have a couple of sausage rolls at the Castle Bakery.

Corfe Castle was one of the earliest built after the 1066 invasion by the Normans, who crossed the English Channel from France. It is regarded as one of the finest ruined castles in England. We purchased a National Trust four-day pass which would be useful for getting us into additional castles later in the week from a very helpful guide and meandered through the ruins. Being early in the day, with a fine mist spraying down, there was hardly anyone there so we had time to explore at our leisure.

The lack of crowds disappeared at our next stop, Durdle Door, which was inundated by people heading to the beach despite the poor weather. Durdle Door is an iconic image of the Jurassic Coast area where waves have eroded most of the limestone, leaving a natural arch stranded in the sea. We almost decided not to do the long walk down to the viewpoints because of the heavy fog at the car park, but we were glad we did as the views were magnificent at the bottom of the path, even though it meant a steep climb back up to our car.

We knew today would be one of our worst driving days as we wanted to get to Cornwall by late evening. Because of the heavy fog, we diverted away from the Dorset National Landscape and drove on a wider road to Lyme Regis. We wanted to stop in this seaside town for lunch but after looping through twice, there was no parking available. We had spotted a park and ride on the way in, but did not want to deal with the bus and the crowds so we drove on. We saw signs for the Lyme Bay Winery on the way out and stopped in there where we had some samples and Janie bought some mead and ginger wine to drink at night after our drives.

After Lyme Regis, we chose to get on the highway and just drive to Heston rather than take the seaside route we had planned through Plymouth, figuring we would not see much better scenery and would be dealing with crowds on a Saturday in all the seaside towns. We found a place called Hog & Hedge at a highway services stop and had lunch, which was surprisingly good for a service area restaurant. It also gave us a chance to get petrol and some candy. We popped into a Tesco in Helston to buy groceries and went to our hotel. We were going to eat at the pub in the parking lot, but they were not accepting walk-ins, despite being completely empty at the time. So we went across the street to McDonald's since we did not feel like doing any more driving today.

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