Morris Men Mania

We left the beautiful forest site at Moreton this morning and decided to head towards Swanage.

We passed through Corfe Castle ...

We parked up in a carpark on the outskirts of Swanage and walked in to check it out.

We didn't know that there was a huge folk festival going on and the place was buzzing with Morris Dancers ...

Elaine loves Morris Dancers and would love to join a troupe one day ...

Even Morris Men need a beer - I bet they all drink real ale ...

The place was going off so we thought we would ring around some sites to see if we could get somewhere for the night.  Sadly there was not a chance, everywhere was fully booked.

We decided we would stick with Plan A and head to the New Forest later in the day, but continued to explore while we still had time in the car park.

Elaine posing by a mural as Morris people walk by ,,,

These ladies were very prim and proper ...

King Charles was out for a stroll ...

Flower headed Morris Man ...

Even the fire truck was a Morris.....really!

It's funny when you take a shot and you don't notice people in the background until later on!

These are the ones Elaine wants to join, the evil looking black faced gang - with sticks!

Mobility Morris Man ...

Of course the other attraction at Swanage is the steam railway.

It's the first time I had seen a Battle of Britain class loco in action, serious anorak excitement!!!

We had afternoon tea outside a lovely little caravan ...

After a day of Morris Men and Steam train excitement we moved on towards the New Forest.

We caught the Sandbanks ferry across to Poole ...

One equates the New Forest with ponies but this string of ponies were sheltering from the sun under a railway bridge, so the cars had to dodge around them ...

We arrived at our destination, Boldre ... I suppose you could call it a one horse town!

We were going to moor up for the night in the local pub carpark, but there was a big party going on in the garden and there was no room in the Inn ...

Elaine got talking to Big Kev, who was chairman of the local football club.  He said we could park up for the night in the memorial hall car park and he invited us to follow him down the road!  He said that if anyone had a problem with it that we should tell them that Big Kev said it was OK. 

So, he delivered us to our mooring spot and left us to it.  It is a fantastic spot about 100 metres from the pub ...

 As we were having dinner a local came across and asked us to move as we weren't allowed to park there.  I informed her that Big Kev said it was OK.  He must have some clout as she said well that's OK then, but don't tell anyone else.

We love Big Kev!!