We catch the early HSS to Scotland and travel south to our overnight hotel in the Midlands.

We continue south today. The lighter Sunday traffic should mean a mid-afternoon arrival in Bournemouth - plenty of time to settle in and check out the beach and pier before dinner - there may even be time for a relaxing swim in the hotel’s private pool.

We travel west this morning, taking the ferry to the Isle of Purbeck where we call briefly at Swanage and later Weymouth to see the wonderful Chesil Beach. Turning back inland, we travel to Dorchester, reputed to be Thomas Hardy’s inspiration for the town in his novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge". We continue through Cerne Abbas and Sherbourne, exploring one of England’s hidden counties, beautiful Dorset, returning to Bournemouth via Blandford Forum.

Longleat House is one of England’s most beautiful stately homes. Set in 900 acres of parkland (landscaped by Capability Brown) it is home to the Marquis of Bath, and was the first such estate to open its gates to the public as well as the first to open a safari park outside of Africa.

Today it offers even more, including a hedge maze, the Longleat Railway and safari boats for sea-lion escorted cruises. We spend most of the day here stopping at Salisbury en-route for a coffee break.

We leave the south coast this morning and commence our return journey, driving north through Salisbury Plain to the ancient city of Bath, where we stop for a few hours over lunch time. In the afternoon we join the motorway and travel to our final hotel in Bromsgrove, south of Birmingham.

We drive directly to Stranraer today and take the evening HSS back to Belfast, arriving at the Europa Buscentre around 10.00pm.