UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions

On our first day we went to visit Monkey World, near Wareham, an Ape Rescue Centre.  It has a TV series - 'Monkey Business'.  Mike studies the notice to see where to go first within its 65 acres.
 

Here's Belinda hauling out a motorised buggy for Mike in case Belinda's very own monkey gets tired walking around Monkey World in the hot Dorset sun!  Er, yes, very funny Belinda!

The first of many photos taken of the monkeys - and we did take a lot of monkey pictures!  In this enclosure the keepers were throwing in ice lollies which the Chimpanzees here were enjoying on this sweltering day.  It was fun watching the monkeys' antics.

The monkeys in the Templer Pavilions at Monkey World were enjoying their cool ices too!  This furry guy had taken to bashing his lolly on that bench to break it up.  We have some video shots of the monkeys on our Dorset video clips page.
 

Mike!  How did you get in there?  Ha Ha, very funny Belinda.  This is a gibbon and he (or maybe he's a she - it's rather difficult to tell under all that fir!) was very friendly and happy for his (or her) picture to be taken.  What a poser!

One of several human feeding areas at Monkey World.  We had a most enjoyable day in the hot sun, just a visit to the large gift shop now before leaving then!  The entrance cost £9 and their website is on our UK tourist links page.
 

On the way back to our Dorset cottage we saw a sign to Mill House Cider Museum so diverted.  We viewed a DVD on how cider is made, then looked around the old cider making machinery.
 

Mmmm, nice!  No visit is complete without trying a sample!  Belinda preferred this tasting to the whisky in Scotland last year!  Our look round the Mill House Cider Museum cost £5.

Happy with the tasting, Belinda then bought some - the tanker arrived the next day, that carton was just for the evening!  Mill House Cider Museum is just off the A352 east of Dorchester in Dorset.

On day 2 we went to visit Corfe and Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck, taking a ride on The Swanage Railway.  It cost £10 including discounted entrance to the castle.  See our links page for the railway website.
 

Mike gained a new nickname on our Dorset holiday - Gadget Man.  Here he is on the Swanage Railway steam train armed with video camera, stills camera, talkie-walkies, pedometer, mobile phone and Sat Nav (see our Sat Nav review).
 

This shot was taken from the same position as a photo Mike took as a boy back in 1968 on a family holiday based in Corfe village.  Nothing much had changed in Corfe, only the addition of pedestrian crossing lights and more traffic.

Just look at the size of that video camera!  Unfortunately our modern DV camcorder packed up the day before our Dorset holiday so we had to use our aged Hi8 model instead!
 

This shot is looking towards Corfe village, with the steam railway on the left and church just right of centre.

On our 2nd Dorset holiday page we have more pictures of Corfe and the castle and we move further down the Isle of Purbeck to Swanage on the Swanage Railway steam train.