Roemin abit

Stopped for a few hours at another NT property suggested by the landlady at the Horse and Groom. Its a prehistoric stone circle, like Stonehenge, but over a mile in diameter with the village of Avebury inside the circle. Its not as visually spectacular as Stonehenge, however you can walk around among the stones and even have a meal in the pub, the only one in the world inside a stone circle. In fact one of the stones is the largest megalith in Europe and may be even older than Stonehenge. Avebury manor was also very interesting having been restored by the BBC, for a TV program, in collaboration with the NT and each room represents a different era. The house has only had 3 family owners but 22 tenants in its history, a classic buy to let! Unlike all the other NT properties we have come across you can also sit on the furniture and touch the exhibits. It creates a different atmosphere which is reflected in the friendly approachable stewards who are not just there to guard the property...

Parked at the NT Corfe Castle car park and walked along the nature trail into the village and then to the Castle ruins. It must have been an outstanding castle when it was built for William the Conqueror in the 11th century, but is now an impressive ruin after being blown up after the civil wars around 1650. At the time it was owned by the Bankes family who then moved to their other estate at Kingston Lacy and it was bequeathed to the NT in the 1980's with Kingston Lacy and a lot of coast and land thereabouts. There were some NT displays and stalls in the outer keep and Rosemary bought me only the second ice cream to be sold there this year. Its been a bad, bad summer apparently and the ice cream stall only just opened. We bought some rolls and scones in the village bakery and we had lunch in the van, in the summer drizzle, before moving on. We stopped at Kingston Lacy, as it was on our route, to have a look round the gardens and the house where the Corfe Castle keys are on ...

It was raining first thing, but did not last long and we left about 11:30 for a short drive through the hill fog to Swanage to find some of the free Jazz Festival events in the town. Parked in the main car park (at vast expense) and strolled towards the seafront where there was a college modern jazz group playing Miles Davis type stuff on the old quay. We listened for a while and went back to the van for a sandwich, picked up at M&S yesterday. Then we moved to the south car park overlooking the pier gardens and beach where the Dorset Youth Band were playing 40’s and 50’s big band music. We just caught the last 20 mins or so as the sun made an appearance . Then I went for a quick walk to the cliffs behind the car park for a couple of photos back over the bay, while Rosemary made a cup of coffee. We had an overnight stop on a working sheep farm camp site near Corfe castle. It was windy and overcast again away from the coast, it had been all day apparently. We were given a pitch...

Caught the train to Weymouth at the station by the campsite and spent the afternoon wandering round the seafood festival. It was sponsored by Pommery champagne and there was no lack of customers in their many champagne and oyster bars. Brexit and austerity has not affected the southern boating set. We shared a calamari and king prawn wrap and a tray of tempura prawns - both very nice. The stalls where all set close together around the old harbour which was very crowded and rather spoilt the street food eating experience, unless you could find a seat in the harbour side pubs - impossible. There was lots more room around the old brewery area in the old town which we thought could have been used to better effect. We had coffee and cake in the harbour side church which was open for festival visitors, always the place for a bargain and quiet sit down away from the crowds. Weather was overcast with a gusty wind and a just a brief sunny interval in the afternoon. Breakfast and supper in...

We set off about lunch time in the motorhome for a few days on the south coast. The aim was to visit the seafood festival at Weymouth, the jazz festival at Swanage and stop somewhere on the way back. There was very busy traffic from the M3 onwards as we approached the rush hour around Southampton and Bournemouth, but we could not leave earlier. We were heading for Moreton CCC site near Dorchester for the first two days of the break and we arrived at 7:00pm after stopping at Waitrose.