Action Packed Days

We went to Poole quay to watch the RNLI go through their paces. This year they set light to a tramp steamer (not really) and had to rescue the sailors, who just happened to be wearing dry suits. The day went very orange for a while.

     

Later that week this area hit the headlines for the amount of rain that fell on Thursday. This was the first day of the Air Festival at Bournemouth – they haven’t had much luck over the past few years. At home I managed to get to our garage which is all of 5 paces from the front door. It was a horrendous day. Here are a couple of pictures from the Bournemouth Echo.

         

In contrast the weather on Friday was superb and just right for the Air Festival. We bagged our free parking spot at 1000 in Boscombe and walked down to where the show was going to be. The council had done a marvellous job of clearing up and the only problem we could see was that part of the beach had been washed away by the flood.

There was a good crowd on the beach and there were a few warm up events before the start at 1330.

 

The Memorial Flight – Lancaster Bomber, Spitfire and Hurricane

Breitling wing walkers – spectacular stuff

         

Red Arrows - as usual fantastic

         

Sadly, the following day, Red 4 crashed after the show, killing the pilot

On the way home – Sue at Boscombe beach huts

Quite some time ago I had been asked by Sally, in the turquoise, to lead a ramble for some of her family when they were staying in Fordingbridge, for a family celebration. Graham, in the yellow, had asked me about geocaching, as it happened we were passing one of my caches so I gave them the task of finding it. Sally, with a little help, found it.

Sue and I had been well looked after, by Sally and family, and had a really good breakfast. Sue had come along, but was returning by bus which stopped close by. We spotted the bus stop on arrival, BUT when she went to leave, the bus stop had been decommissioned. With 5 minutes to go to the bus arrival there was nothing Sue could do, but wait. The bus came, Sue thrust her hand out and low and behold the bus stopped.  The driver said ‘ If it had been tomorrow I wouldn’t have stopped!’

Another ‘oldie’ taken at Prince Rupert School Mess in 1972 or 73.

Salisbury - Caravanning

Unusually for us we went away in the caravan in the middle of the school holidays. We only went up the road to Salisbury, but this enabled us to explore north of Salisbury and to have a better look around the city itself. The Salisbury website describes it as’ 'The city in the countryside', the magnificent medieval city has it all: historic streets and alleyways, charming half-timbered buildings etc.’ At its centre is the medieval cathedral with its 404 foot spire. Below are photos of the spire and cloisters.


      

In and around the cathedral are 20 sculptures by Sean Henry. Sue is pictured with the ‘Walking Woman’. The little girl in the left hand photo is real the rest is all sculpture.


    

Whilst in cathedral close we visited Ted Heath’s old house, Arundells. Only 12 people can go around at one time and it has to be booked in advance. We found it very interesting and most enlightening, well worth a visit if you have the time. Also in the close was the ‘Constable and Salisbury’ exhibition, although good we thought it rather expensive for what it was.
We visited Stonehenge, on the Saturday morning, unfortunately the weather was damp and overcast. At 0915 in the morning it is busy with tourists, but when we left at 1030 queues were everywhere.  HINT: visit early.


  

Close to the campsite is Old Sarum, this is a huge Iron Age hill fort where the first cathedral once stood and the Romans, Normans and Saxons have all left their mark. On the day of our visit they were having a medieval jousting festival. This is all very dangerous and lances are regularly broken. If you look hard at the larger photo you can see the lance strike and break away.


    




There were quite a number of other attractions – medieval music and singing – falconry display  - medieval food tasting, we didn’t risk it.


    

An owl in the display

The countryside north of the city is superb with some lovely villages. We are having sandwiches in St Andrews churchyard Great Durnford during a geocaching expedition. The church dates back to the late 12th century.

 

A surprise en route was a collection of ‘exotic’ animals at one of the manors. Here is an alpaca there was a also a Bactrian camel (two humps). The River Avon flowing through Little Durnford Manor.

Trish and Colin visited us at the campsite on our last evening there.

Medieval Fun at Old Sarum

Another oldie – our 25th Wedding Anniversary in Barbados 1994