Whilst visiting The Outdoors Show last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the National Trust Outdoor Nation Roaming Reporter - Leni Hatcher. Her brief is to travel the UK, interviewing people about their views of The Outdoors - see full details of the project on her blog.

Leni has been awaiting delivery of her branded VW campervan, in which she is supposed to be travelling the UK, but for various reasons it hasn't arrived yet. When she saw my blog & pictures I think there was a bit of campervan-envy so I decided to invite her for a day out on the Jurassic Coast to see what we have to offer and what life is like travelling the countryside in a campervan.

Shortly before Sunrise I met Leni in Weymouth to start our whistle-stop tour of the Jurassic Coast - first stop was Ringstead - a great opportunity to see the sun rise (or at least wait for daylight due to the clouds!) Ringstead gives a great vista to see where we were going to be travelling - through Weymouth & over to Portland and the Sailing Academy.

Leni's reaction to the view gave me a timely reminder that perhaps sometimes I take for granted the simply stunning scenery we have on the Jurassic Coast - this was cemented later in the day as she ran out of words for the views!

After Ringstead we made our way to Portland (more exclamations of "wow!" and "fabulous" in her broad Welsh accent!) we stopped off at Portland Heights to look back along Chesil Beach and along the West Dorset coast. It was also a good opportunity to show Leni the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy and explain about the Olympics and the good (and possibly not so good) legacies it will leave.

Next stop - Portland Bill, where Leni managed her first interview with a local couple out walking their dogs. The Trust is concerned that people are 'loosing touch with the Outdoors' and Leni's asking people what they think about that. Interesting answers from this couple and others Leni spoke with!

We then set off for Burton Bradstock to meet Graham Wiffen, Marketing Manager for the Hive Beach Cafe but not before Leni insisted I pulled over just outside of Abbotsbury to see the view back along Chesil towards Portland (accompanied by more exclamations of amazement!)

A quick run on the beach and refreshing cuppa before Leni interviewed Graham and then off to Golden Cap where we met with Rob Rhodes, Countryside Manager for the NT in West Dorset. At the top of Golden Cap, the highest point on the South Coast (have I mentioned that before?!), Leni interviewed Rob and it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the Outdoors and what the NT has to offer.

Our final visit was to Langdon Wood, still on the Golden Cap Estate, where I introduced Leni to our Careership Ranger - Hayley Dorrington. Hayley has created a free Play Trail in the woods, with the help of NT volunteers and local schools and she certaily felt it was the way forward in trying to get youngsters outside, away from the X-box and TV!

With the sun going down as we headed back to Weymouth, I can safely say that both of us were truly exhausted (and I must apologise to Leni for us not stopping for lunch so we were starving too!). A quick final farewell interview and I left Leni with a few hours of video footage to edit and upload onto the Outdoor Nation blog.

Of course, 1 day is nowhere near enough to show someone around the Jurassic Coast but I'd like to think that Leni saw just enough to be inspired to come back and visit for longer - maybe with her funky VW camper when she gets it!

Once the videos have been edited, I'll post the links here. (Oh, and for the keen-eyed amongst you who have spotted a picture of Corfe Castle above, I cheated and met Leni yesterday afternoon in Corfe where we used an old TV-trick of filming things in the wrong order!)