Just a few miles away but a longish drive away from Poole is Swanage, an old fashioned holiday town in the Purbecks where I went yesterday to enjoy a warm autumn day. I went there to help my work colleagues volunteering to paint part of the pier's barriers.
The pier itself is not straight it goes around a bend and the end is on 2 levels. An upper deck for promenaders and the lower deck for boats and people fishing. As you see in my picture there are some small brass plaques where people have sponsored a plank on the pier. We painted a section just before the bend to the steps leading to the upper deck. This proved a bit difficult as the sea breezes were pretty strong and blew some of the paint off the brushes as we painted if the brushes were overloaded. We were rewarded with fish and chips at lunchtime and quickly finished the section we were working on soon after.
Swanage was also hosting a Folk Festival weekend too, so while working we were seranaded by folk music and dancing, not just on the pier, but also could hear music from the town too.
After the pier painting, I wanted to return to Poole on the open top bus service back to Poole, so I walked through the town taking in the sights of the folk dancers.
Here's my trip back to Sandbanks, Poole, where there is a chain ferry that joins Sandbanks with Studland and the Purbeks.
Just out of Swanage I saw the catamaran leaving Poole for the Channel Islands and France, behind that you can just make out the white cliffs on the Isle of Wight.
Excuse on the bus of the ferry looking towards Sandbanks
Looking through the bus towards the Haven Hotel a yacht was sailing across in front of the ferry.
In the bay in Sandbanks, where the tide was going out there were a lot of kite surfers with their brightly coloured kites against the bright blue sky. I took the bus up to Westbourne between Poole and Bournemouth where I could change buses and head for Poole and home.
It's simple things like this that make me feel really lucky to live in a lovely part of the country.
Sounds and looks like s lovely out! I've been to swanage, but it must have been nearly 40 years ago! Poole I don't think I've been to, but studland? Is there a studland bay? That sounds familiar! I can see why sandbanks got its name! You live in a lovely area!
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