Sunday 23 November 2014

A Last Day in Dorest.

Usually I wake up before everyone, survey the damage and start to fold and pack.
In fact if I am sleeping on an airbed, as I stretch forward on waking I'll pull out bung and sink to the ground.



As we packed and loaded the car BOMO kept the children occupied with hula loop races and general running up and down. Campsite really full now and ready for the summer holidays.




With a full car we headed out for lunch, a pub lunch.
I decided I was going to try Scampi for the first time, in a pub by the sea. Excellent.




We parked the car and wandered down the lane and came across the The Pig Hotel
Blinking in astonishment.
This is a Pig? It's a PIG!!

I have a thing for this group of hotels, even looked at visiting whilst we were here camping, but I hadn't really really looked and wasn't sure on it's location so stood there in disbelieve as we stumbled on it at the bottom of the lane on the last day.

Why are we not going here for lunch I gasped?
Because you are having Scampi at the pub next door said BOMO lovingly!

After an hour of laughs we headed down for our final beach trip. I needed to work off the breadcrumbs that came with the meal. Very heavy not sure if I will be eating that again this decade.




This is a gem of a beach. It's near The Pig in Studland. You can't miss it.




After lots of whooping and hollering it was time to say our good byes and head for home.
This was one of the best family holidays ever. I am amazed how much ground we covered and still managed to be relaxed. I am already planning something for next year.

P was asleep long before we got onto the Sandbanks Ferry. 




We came to Dorset in a very hot week of July 2014, we were lucky because the skies were blue and there was a breeze in the air down at the waters edge. As we headed back East the heat became more intense as the clouds joined together so we really did have the best weather.

If you read this and fancy a trip to Purbeck & Studland  I am still not sure how the area is defined, maybe the last few posts will give you an idea of where to visit and what to do.




Happy Days.
Now it's November is it too early to be wishing for the sun.

CM





Durlston Country Park

On the Friday of our trip to Dorset we went here
Our friends from BOMO had arrived the eve before and were going to join us over the weekend, they had come here as children and so we made it a day out.
The park is situated in the far east corner of the Isle of Purbeck.

With the right weather this place is nature personified. It was hot and balmy and you could hear the bugs in the grasses.
Honestly it was like being dropped in the the BBC adaptation of Gerald Durrell's,
My Family and Other Animals.

When you walk down from the carpark and the sun shines this is what it looks like.



Inside the castle is a restaurant and a visitor center for bugs and butterflies and stuff.
We stopped for lunch out on the terrace which on this day was Mediterranean and reasonably priced.
Have you ever had a triple cooked chip before? Really rather incredible.




there is a choice of walks we decided to take the coastal path that leads you to the light house.
If I was 5 stone lighter and in a tea dress I could have been Keira Knightly in a 1940's film.



Sadly we didn't make it to the light house, the path way drops right down just past where I am standing to where T is standing in the photo. We had a beautiful baby boy in a buggy with us and he was not coping at all with the heat, the scramble up the cliff face would probably push it and we needed to get him into the shade, preferably the cool of the beach.

We headed back to Shell Bay where T was finally triumphant in finding a hermit crab. I am surprised she hadn't required an antibiotic she had been below water since Saturday.



P finally wrapped a towel round herself and I was quick enough to take a picture. Again we had some great family and friends moments but I don't think its right to post their photos here.




My hair was getting more 'beachy' and I think it was getting more sad because we were going to be heading home tomorrow.

CM

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Swanage Railway and Corfe Castle

Still in Dorset and what was proving to be an excellent stay-cation, is that what they call it, we headed to Swanage Railway to take the steam train to Corfe Castle



I spoke to the girl in the shop, I asked her how you get out of Swanage, did everyone go by steam? It's quite expensive and this is the train station. She chuckled and said that everyone gets the bus.

The train station where I grew up used to have an open fire in the waiting room in winter and I remember these seat coverings and the old slam shut doors.




We went to Corfe Castle the year before and the family seemed happy to go back so here we go.




I have no idea how the thing is still standing and I love the lack of hand rails.




We stopped for lunch and bought sweets at the shop and then headed back.
Then this really was the hottest day of the year. I sat inside the shelter on the platform quietly waiting, wishing for the train. 




Despite our happy faces the train stopped on the way back and I think I panicked a bit and then felt really faint from the heat just wanted off.




So happy to see this view of Swanage Beach within five minutes of pulling into the station.
That is P slap bang in the middle if you squint you can make her blonde out.




I took so many great photos of the girls here, I'd blow them up 6ft tall and hang them in the house, but P is completely starkers so this is not the place to share, shame.

Back at camp

























T did what every other child did this summer and made her loom bracelets and P did something unseen for a while and conk out and she did not want to be woken up until much later which meant a long evening for us.
Love her for that.

CM


Saturday 1 November 2014

Monkey World

After Lawrence and the Tank we drove over to Monkey World on which I believe was now the hottest day of the year.

I'm not the biggest fan of looking at animals in pens. I look hard at their faces and think, do you just want us all to go away?
I like a circus trained animal as much as the next person but I don't think it's right. 

This place is beyond popular.
It is also a bit sad because as you walk in the entrance there are memorial plaques of love on the ground, walls, trees and seats, a pathway full for those who loved visiting.
All bit over whelming for those of us who are over emotional.




This fella gets this to play on and my chimps had this.




Feeling a little guilty for not throwing myself into den building I got up here with gusto but had the wrong size feet and I think resulted in crawling part of the way round.

It really was beyond hot. Ice poles all round.



Monkey World is actually a rescue center not a 'roll up roll up' park.
Outside each of the houses are written notes as to where that have been bought/liberated from, for example these boys were either used for fertility or respiratory research I can't remember which, and have not been outside in 15 plus years.
There are currently rehabilitating so here is hoping.

Emotions kicked again in and I wanted to salute them, but I am shy so just took a deep breath in front of the Jim Cronin Memorial.




Monkey World is great and some of these boys and girls still have their past life performance instinct in them and in the right place at the right time they can really make you chuckle.

I don't like that some people hold their cameras up to the glass not an inch from their face for a picture it's a bit rude. But I do like that the money we spent went straight in to the fund for some very good work.

There is a lot of walking to be done and as far as lunch goes it looks awful but was for us surprisingly homemade when I took the wrappers off!
The gift shop is something else. They have everything.



Incredible feet.

We drove back to camp, we had to stop in a supermarket for supplies on the way back which promptly finished us all off. It seems that on hot days some swim in the river at Wareham so I think that might need to be checked out another time.

CM