2014 - Day Out 05: Swanage and Poole

Date: Monday 26 May 2014

Day three of our mini break and after a long journey across to another county to Exeter and back yesterday, we are staying in Dorset today, visiting a few places and having an evening away from Weymouth.

After a good nights sleep, I awake for our final full day in Weymouth and Dorset and after a "fresh air" break as soon as I wake, I make my way back up to the room to have a lie down and watch the morning news before it is time to meet up with Mr UKBuses for breakfast. We have chance to have a bit of a lie in this morning so we meet up a bit later today in reception for breakfast and as we meet up, we make our way to the "breakfast room" to fill up to keep us going throughout the day. Mr UKBuses makes his coffee and gets his toast whilst I get the cranberry juices ready before making a dash and filling my plate up with loads of bacon, sausage, hash browns and beans. We start eating once Mr UKBuses gets his breakfast assortment sorted and after devouring our cooked breakfast we wash it down with a few yogurts, but disaster strikes, there is no vanilla today, so we have to make do with Strawberry and Raspberry. Breakfast eaten, I make my way for some "fresh air" whilst Mr UKBuses finishes off his coffee and once he has supped up his coffee, we make our way back to the rooms to freshen up and get ready for the day ahead. We have to make our way up to the Kings Statue to get our first us of the day, but we decide to have a look at the bus stop opposite and find out that a First Wessex service 503 is due and we decide to get this into the town, especially when we see who is driving it, Clive a former work colleague who used to work with Mr UKBuses in the West Midlands. We arrive early for our bus and Clive has a bit of time for his next journey, so we have a chat about old times and what is happening fleet wise with First in Weymouth. Clive has to depart so we say our goodbyes and make our way to the bus stop at Kings Statue, stopping off along the way to pick up a bottle of pop to keep us refreshed whilst on the bus.

We have to venture onto First Wessex's service X53 again today, but we are travelling in the opposite direction to Poole which means that we will be on the bus for approximately an hour and a half and not three and a half hours as we were yesterday when we caught the X53 to Exeter. Before we board I notice that my trainer is falling apart and the sole is actually hanging off, with no time to go back to the hotel, I hope that we can find a Shoe Zone in Poole to get a cheap pair of trainers as a replacement, so we board at 09:57am and our on our way, I cant quite remember what villages we pass through to begin with as Mr UKBuses and myself had a nap, I know that we passed through Wool as we were stuck for a while at the level crossing whilst a train passed through, which meant that an idiot driving behind our bus was constantly beeping his horn even though it was impossible to move anywhere. We are nearly in Poole and we get confused as it seems that the route has changed as we head down by the harbour area, which also meant we had nice views before arriving at Poole bus station at 11:27am. We have about fifteen minutes to wait, so whilst Mr UKBuses takes a few photographs, I go in the nearby shopping centre to find a cheap shoe shop, but with time not on my side, I have to make it back to the bus station so that we can catch our next bus, even though Mr UKBuses was standing at the wrong stand to begin with. With the bottom of my trainer now becoming worse, we board More's service 52 confusing the driver as we board when asking for the day ticket, which we are on for less than half an hour before we have to alight at Sandbanks at 12:09pm, walking from the stop around the corner to the stop by the Sandbanks Ferry boarding point.

We have a twenty minute wait at Sandbanks, so a bit of "fresh air" is had and we take a seat at the bus stop watching the ferry crossing the water a couple of times. We can see our next bus, but obviously it is the other side of the water, so has to wait for the ferry to go across to bring it to our side. By the time the bus gets across the water, the bus is running approximately 10 minutes late so we board "The Purbeck Breezer" service 50 at 12.35pm, and make our way to our next destination of Bournemouth, we are only on the bus for 25 minutes, and the bus has caught up time. We alight in Bournemouth and Mr UKBuses decides to watch a show that is going on in the main square, with me starting to walk off. He tells me to stay here for a bit, with him thinking I was making my way to the pub, but when I point at my now totally useless trainer, he understands what I'm looking for and we go off in search for a cheap shoe shop. We spend about twenty minutes looking and decide to give up, especially when we find T K Maxx, which doesn't have a good selection of trainers, I decide on a pair of pumps which cost me nearly twenty pounds (and I thought T K Maxx was supposed to be cheap!) and with me not planning on buying replacement shoes, I have to get the credit card out again to pay for them. We make our way back to the bus stops where Mr UKBuses takes a few photographs, whilst I visit W H Smiths to get some more refreshments for our next journey. We take a walk down to where the old bus station used to be (now a car park), before making our way to the bus stop for our next bus, we did arrive nearly twenty minutes early which is a good job as the bus turns up twenty minutes earlier than planned.

We board "The Purbeck Breezer" service 50 again which for some reason the open top buses aren't being operated today and make our way back to the Sandbanks to catch the ferry, but before we depart I change from my one and half trainers I have left, into my new pumps. We board the ferry and it is a good job we aren't on the open top as I can see the ferry bobbing about, which would have made me felt a bit more sick if I was in the open air. We make away across the from Sandbanks and make our way towards our next destination. After a journey of an hour and twenty minutes, we arrive at Swanage and after a few photographs are taken at the railway station, we head around to the depot to take a few shots before walking into the town centre, and it felt so good to walk around properly with out a trainer hanging off as we walk into the town centre, I find a big bin so I can dispose of my old trainers, but I can't complain as I had a lot of use of them over the last couple of years. We decide to have a break and we have a change and head into The Anchor this year, see picture right, and Mr UKBuses takes his seat whilst it is my turn for the round (I don't know how that happened!), and after a pleasant service from the landlord, we take our seats and rest our legs for a bit and mourn the passing of my trainers. We look at the time and notice that as we arrived in Swanage earlier than planned, and we make it back to the railway station on time, we can catch the earlier bus service into Poole which means we can have more time to take a visit to the depot to take a few photographs. So we head back to the railway station and at 3.30pm, we board "The Purbeck Breezer" service 40, even though people tried to push in, we still get good seats and we depart on time and have a journey of an hour an ten minutes, passing through Corfe Castle and Wareham along the way before arriving back in Poole.

As we have more time to spare, we make our way around to the depot to take a few photographs, before going back to the bus station and through the shopping centre to the other side of the depot to take a few more photographs. We are getting hungry and decide to visit J D Wetherspoons "The Lord Wimbourne" for some food and also to meet Mr UKBuses relative. Before we do, we make a visit to the railway station so we can buy our train ticket to get us back to Weymouth tonight. We make our way back to the town and into The Lord Wimbourne and as we are early we order a drink and wait before food and after a while Mr UKBuses brother arrives and more drinks are ordered and food is also ordered too. Mr UKBuses opts for his Chicken and Bacon Melt, "without the melt" and I opt for the Scampi and Chips again as it is soft food as my tooth is still a bit sore and playing up. Food is eaten and we stay at The Lord Wimbourne for a few hours and also a few pints and catch up with Mr UKBuses brother and how he is getting on and what he is getting up to in the area. It is just before 9.00pm so we finish our drinks and make our way to the railway station.

As we are near to the railway station, we say our goodbyes to Mr UKBuses brother and make our way to the platform and wait a while for our train to arrive. It is 9.14pm and our South West Train arrives on time and we board and take a seat and get comfortable for the journey ahead, as no cheers photo was taken in The Lord Wimbourne a selfie was taken on the train on the way back, see picture left. As we make our way back into Weymouth we pass through Parkstone, Hamworthy and Wool, arriving at Weymouth Railway Station at 10.00pm. We alight our train and make our way out of the station and as there are no buses running back to the hotel this time on a night on Bank Holidays, we decide to go for the easy option and visit the taxi office opposite the station. We order a taxi and we wait about five minutes before it arrives to take us back to the hotel. It only takes a few minutes to get us back to the Premier Inn, but it did save us the walk as it had been a long day and we were both tired. Mr UKBuses opts out of a nightcap in "The Lodmoor", but I decide to have one, but have to pop to my room first before popping back down to the bar and having a couple of pints before I retire. After enquiring about what time the bar closes, the barmaid on duty does me a favour by taking for two pints which means that I don't have to rush to down the first pint in time for last orders. I repay the favour when she mentions that she has to bring the big board in from outside, so I bring it in for her before she pours my second pint and after my nightcap is finished, I pop across the road to have some "fresh air" whilst watching the sea in the dark, and also the town illuminated in the distance before I retire and hopefully get a good nights sleep ready for the long trip back tomorrow.

Another beautiful day was had, and a nice final night in Dorset (Poole and Weymouth) was a fitting night to end the mini break.

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Date: Tuesday 27 May 2014

It is our last morning in Weymouth and with our bags packed ready for the trip back home it is nearly time to say goodbye to one of my favourite locations in England.

It is our last few hours, so I wake up early getting some "fresh air" before going back to my room to ensure that everything is packed away ready for departure after breakfast, which I meet Mr UKBuses in reception of the Premier Inn at 08:15am and make our way to the breakfast room / The Lodmoor public house for our final feast in Weymouth. I get the juice in for us whilst Mr UKBuses gets his coffee and toast sorted before making our way to the buffet to load our plates up with bacon, sausage, etc to fill us up until we get back to the West Midlands. We devour our food and the traditional yogurts are had, with Vanilla back in supply today. I nip outside for some "fresh air" whilst Mr UKBuses finishes off his coffee before we go back to the rooms and ensure that everything is all packed up and nothing is left behind. After the final check is done we meet back in reception and make our way to the bus stop opposite the hotel.

We only have to wait for a few minutes before a First Wessex service 503 turns up to take us to the Kings Statue in Weymouth and it is Clive driving again today. It only takes a couple of minutes before we arrive and with not a lot of time left, I leave Mr UKBuses chatting with his past work colleague, saying my goodbyes to Clive myself as I alight to have my now traditional last pint in J D Wetherspoons "The William Henry". I have finished my drink by the time Mr UKBuses arrives and we make our way back to the railway station, but before we arrive we make our first visit of the long weekend to the First Wessex Weymouth depot to take a few pictures, it is situated virtually opposite the railway station so don't have too far to walk. We arrive at Weymouth Railway Station and Mr UKBuses visits the shop so he can get a drink for the journey back, but is frustrated that a few people in front of him are wanting coffees which slows up the process of him getting served (and only a couple of minutes left before we have to board our train). Luckily we have a minute to spare and we board our South West Train which is heading for London Waterloo (we are not going that far), and at 10:03am our train departs and we say goodbye to Weymouth for another year. We have to change for our next train at Southampton Central, which means we are on the train for just under an hour and a half, passing through, Parkstone, Poole and Bournemouth before arriving at 11:28am. We have a bit of a break here so I decide to pop out to the front of the station and have some "fresh air" before we have to catch our next train.

After my break is over I rejoin Mr UKBuses on the platform and at 11:46am our Arriva CrossCountry train arrives and we board and take our reserved seats, which are not occupied this time, ready for our journey back. As soon as we leave Southampton, the refreshment trolley makes it way down our carriage and I opt for a bottle of Sharp's "Doombar" to keep my throat wet during this leg of the journey. We are on this train for approximately an hour and a half passing through Oxford before arriving at Banbury, where we have to change for our third leg of the journey back home, again we have a bit of time to spare so I head outside for some "fresh air" before heading back into the station for our next train.  At 13:43pm, our next train arrives and we board a Chiltern Railways train which will take us to Birmingham Moor Street, luckily as we board we spot a table seat straight away so that we can stretch our legs out and we are on this train for 50 minutes before arriving in Birmingham and we pass Warwick, Leamington Spa and Solihull along the way before arriving at Birmingham Moor Street at 14:34pm.

We only have a few minutes to wait, which luckily I can make use of the facilities before our next train arrives. At 14:39pm our London Midland train arrives and surprisingly it is being pulled by a Class 153 train, a train which used to be used on the Stourbridge Shuttle service. We make our way to Birmingham Snow Hill, waiting at the station a few minutes before it carries on along the homeward bound journey. Mr UKBuses has arranged a lift so as we arrive and alight at Stourbridge Junction at 15:08, we say our goodbyes and I head into Stourbridge via the Stourbridge Dodger visiting the bank and shops and also a sneaky pint in J D Wetherspoons "The Chequers Inn" before I make my way back to Stourbridge Interchange and catching a National Express West Midland's service 276 to Wollaston Junction and after alighting I have a short walk home before I can put my legs up for the rest of the day.

The break in Weymouth has been a brilliant few days with fantastic weather, fantastic company and a big thank you goes to Mr UKBuses who had planned all the bus journeys we went on, if it wasn't for the plans, we may have been stuck in the middle of nowhere. No doubt that Weymouth will be visited next year and hopefully there will be a Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day in 2015. I didn't manage a lot, but there are a few depot bald spot photo's below from our holiday in Weymouth:

Depot Bald Spot 1: The bald spot is seen outside Stagecoach South West depot at Exmouth.

Depot Bald Spot 2: The bald spot is seen at Wilts and Dorset's depot at Poole.

Depot Bald Spot 3: The bald spot is seen outside First Wessex's depot at Weymouth just before it caught the train back home.

2013 - Day Out 06: Weymouth, Swanage and Bournemouth

Date: Saturday 15 June 2013

It was the second day of our weekend break in Weymouth and as I wake up and clamber to the window on my poorly leg, the weather looks like it will be fine for a day of riding around the Dorset region followed by a night of sampling Weymouth's pubs.

Normally my first night's sleep in strange surroundings means that I don't sleep well on the first night, but the aching leg and long distance travelled yesterday must have helped me get a very good first night's sleep. I wake up and after the initial pain in my left leg and clamber around the room, I get ready and make my way downstairs for some "fresh air" before sampling our first breakfast in The Royal Hotel. Normally when staying away, I go for a walk around the area before breakfast, but due to my leg problems I decide to sit outside the hotel for a while in the morning sun whilst waiting for Mr UKBuses to make an appearance. He soon appears and we make our way to the breakfast room where we take our seats and wait to be served. We do wait a while as it seems everybody has come down for breakfast at the same time, I try and get up to get some pre-breakfast orange juice but as I struggle, Mr UKBuses comes to the rescue and gets it for me. We finally get served and order the full English breakfast, both of us opting for no eggs and beans but we wished we asked for extra bacon as we find out the size of the meal after it has been served to us. We consume our meals ready for the day ahead and after Mr UKBuses has his fifth cup of coffee, we return to our room to get our stuff and out we go.

Mr UKBuses is first out and walks ahead to the King's Statue so he gets a few photographs before our first journey as I hobble up to the bus stops, after purchasing some pop for the journey ahead, I rest in the bus stop whilst Mr UKBuses clicks away. Our first bus arrives early and the driver kindly lets us board and after 10 minutes resting my leg the Damory 09:10 Service 183 pulls away, leaving Weymouth passing through Dolchester and Puddletown (something that Mr UKBuses missed as he was asleep) before arriving at our first destination of Blandford, where there is also a river called the river Stour, at approximately 10:10. We have to wait just under 15 minutes before getting our next bus, which is Wilts and Dorset Service X8, which will take us to Poole, but first we have a ride around Blandford Forum, before arriving in Blandford again to get us to our destination (Mikey, you are taking me around in circles!).

At 11:23 we arrive in the lovely Poole bus station (not one of my favourite locations), we don't have long to wait for us to catch our next bus and after hobbling across the station we finally arrive at Stand G where we can catch "The Purbeck Breezer" service 40, which departs on time at 11:30. We arrive at our destination of Swanage and Mr UKBuses is on the search for two things, chips to feed his hunger (I couldn't have any as I was on antibiotics and had to have them on an empty stomach) and a cap to stop his bald spot getting sunburnt, so we decide to walk down the main high street, as we reach the bottom of the high street we realise that for the last few years, we have been walking the long way to get us to The White Swan, we had no time for a piddle this year and we made our way back to the railway station to get our next bus. At 13:20 we board another Purbeck Breezer, Service 50 which takes us to Bournemouth passing through Sandbanks along the way. We make our way on top to the "open top" and as we board the ferry at Sandbanks and it being a bit windy and cold we make our way downstairs for the rest of the journey before arriving at Bournemouth at 14:25.

I pop into W H Smiths to get a drink (and a free packet of crisps as part of a deal), whilst Mr UKBuses goes missing whilst taking a few photographs. With no bald spot in sight, I make my way to the bus stop for our next journey and Mr UKBuses finally turns up. We are ahead of schedule and decide to catch the earlier Wilts and Dorsets "More" M1 service to get us back to Poole, departing Bournemouth at 14:48. It was a good decision to catch this bus as there was a bit of traffic along the route, so we arrive at Poole bus station close to our original time anyway. Upon arrival in Poole I decide to rest my leg whilst Mr UKBuses goes to the nearby Wilts and Dorset bus depot to get a few more photographs and I get in a "fresh air" break whilst he is around there. Upon his return we decide to get to our stand at the stop in the station as the queue is getting large for our final journey of the day. We board First in Dorset's Service X53 which takes us back to Weymouth, passing through Wareham along the way with Mr UKBuses having a little nap on the journey before awaking and arriving back at our base for the weekend, Weymouth at 17:23.

We make our way back to the hotel so we can have an hours rest of my leg, which is now starting to swell, and a freshen up before having a night sampling the local pubs in Weymouth, oh and some tea of course. We meet up in the hotel bar where we sample a quick pint before making our way to J D Wetherspoons "The William Henry" where we decide to have some food, Mr UKBuses opts for his BBQ Chicken Melt without the "melt" and I surprise Mr UKBuses by having something different for a change, Scampi and Chips. The obligutary Horse Radish Sauce picture is taken, but we have no horse radish and have to choose the mayonnaise instead, but I don't have none wiped around my face this time. With our food eaten and gone down and drinks finished we make our way further into the town but not before trying out the lift again but as I make my way down the lift gets stuck and the staff have to help me get down to the lower level.

Cheers from The White Harte Tavern

I meet up with Mr UKBuses who is waiting outside after my lift ordeal, and all he can do is laugh. We walk down towards Weymouth harbour, with my walking getting easier, it seems I may have got used to the pain threshold and walk a few steps without the aid of my stick. As we are walking we spot a pub that we haven't been in before, which is "The White Harte Tavern", it looks good from the outside so we pop in and we are not disappointed. We order our drinks and we take a seat by the window so we can watch the people of Weymouth walk past, see picture above. Before we leave a visit to the small room is needed and even though my leg seems better, I discover that I cannot cope with stairs very well as with most new pub refurbishments, the toilets seem to be upstairs. Half an hour later I'm back on ground level and we head to our next public house.

A pub visited (and spotted on his pub radar) a couple of years ago with Mr WME but last year I could not find it, so after walking close to the harbour we walk down a back street and lo and behold, the pub is found and we partake in having a drink at "The Duke of Cornwall", see picture right ,a lovely little cosy pub and still seems to attract a lot of custom, Mr UKBuses was impressed with this one. Drinks finished we head for our penultimate pub of the evening and one of Mr UKBuses favourites, luckily it is not too far away, basically around the corner which makes me not understand why we couldn't find the Duke of Cornwall last year. A couple of minutes walk and we make a visit to "The Globe", there are quite a few people in here so Mr UKBuses can't get his usual bar stool, so he couldn't recreate the "Stan Ogden" look. We do find a couple of seats available at a table and get talking to other holidaymakers visiting Weymouth, whilst drinking a pint of Jail Ale.

Pint finished in The Globe, we head around the corner and visit "The Cutter", see picture left, who have all draught beers on tonight. As we near the pub, there is a bit of a commotion going on outside, but as it was last year we still head inside and the argument with a woman follows us inside too. We drink our pints quickly and make a visit to the small room before we leave to head back to the hotel. Mr UKBuses bids goodnight and I have a nightcap or two in the hotel bar, supping whilst looking out to sea before a final "fresh air" break of the day and heading off to bed. As I get ready for bed I look down at my leg and despite it feeling better and being able to put pressure on it tonight, the lower half, ankle and foot are swelling even more, so it is straight to bed to rest it so I can hopefully enjoy the Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day the following morning.

Despite my poorly leg, the day was a success especially with the dry weather and nice evening sampling the ales of Weymouth's finest hostelries, lets hope the weather is perfect for the Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day for our final full day in Weymouth.

2012 - Day Out 12: Salisbury, Bournemouth and Swanage

Date: Saturday 16 June 2012

It is the second day of our weekend away in Weymouth, Dorset and after a good nights sleep at The Alendale, it is time to explore Dorset further afield as we visit quite a few towns and villages using our Explorer Day Tickets on First and Wilts and Dorset buses.

I wake up early so I decide to have a walk across the seafront up to The Kings Statue and get myself a newspaper from the local convenience store, walking back along the sea front enjoying the morning sea air to have a read before I meet up with Mr UKBuses for our first Alendale breakfast of this year. At 08.00 we take our seats at our breakfast table in the window and our host's Moira and Jim (Denise and Jim, the owners are away for a few days) greet us and take our order, Mr UKBuses opts for the standard English breakfast, but I opt for the Scottish breakfast complete with Potato Scones and Haggis. After devouring our breakfast we crawl back up the stairs to get ready for our tour of Dorset. We pay for our rooms before we leave for the day, and then make our way up The Esplanade in glorious sunshine (weather was wrong again) to The Kings Statue where we have time for a few photographs before catching our first bus of the day. Wilts and Dorset's service 183 to Blandford arrives , see picture left, and we board buying our Explorer Day Tickets (which can be used on both First in Dorset and Wilts and Dorset buses) and taking our seats upstairs before the bus pulls off at 09:10 giving us a chance to let our gut-busting breakfasts to go down. We make our way through Puddletown and Milborne St Andrew before arriving at Blandford. This is not our first destination of the day, this will be at the end of the next service which is service 184, which the bus that we are sitting on changes to, so we don't have to move from our seats.

We make our way from Blandford and arrive at Blandford Army Camp where a soldier boards and checks up and down stairs before we can move on from the entrance, I'm surprised that Mr UKBuses was not chucked off the bus as he is always looking suspicious. We spend the next five to ten minutes riding around the camp before arriving at the entrance, where unbeknown to me the soldier that checked the bus when we arrived was still on board, but he alights and opens the gates for us so that we can make our way onto our first destination. It has been nearly two hours since we boarded the bus, but at approximately 11:20 we arrive at our first destination, Salisbury - We won't be passing Stonehenge today but I did ask Mr UKBuses what it was like to be a part of the construction team, I cannot inform you of his reply. Mr UKBuses gets his camera out straight away, whilst I get my "fresh air" tablets out straight away and have a "break" whilst Mr UKBuses is snapping away. We make our way through the town, getting lost along the way but eventually we find the local Wilts and Dorset bus depot and after taking a few more photographs, we make our way into the Town Centre to have a little explore before heading back to the bus station to get to our next destination.

Wilts and Dorset's service X3 arrives and lays over for a few minutes before we can board, just in time as there are a few raindrops starting to fall, and at 12:10 we make our way to the next destination, Ringwood, home of the Ringwood Brewery, but we won't have time to sample any today as we are virtually just passing through. After a journey of forty minutes, we arrive at Ringwood, which is in fact across the border in Hampshire and with the brief rain shower now stopped, I get some more "fresh air" whilst Mr UKBuses crosses the road to take a few photographs. I cross the road to join him but as I cross the road he is nowhere to be seen and I walk up and down the street for about five to ten minutes looking for him, I return to the bus shelter and he suddenly appears saying he had been their all the time (but I doubt that). We only have a few minutes to wait before our next Wilts and Dorset bus turns up, which is service X6, a recently introduced Express service to Bournemouth. The bus turns up on time at 13:06, but departs the stop a few minutes late after an enquiring passenger holds up the driver. Despite this delay, we still arrive in Bournemouth for an impressive 13:32 and after taking a few photographs along Gervis Place we decide to have a quick one in J D Wetherspoons, "The Moon In The Square", Mr UKBuses does his usual trick by going to the toilet which means that I am the one having to pay for the round. Fortunately for me, this plan didn't work as when he came back from the toilet I was still waiting to be served and looking like it would be some time before we would get served, we decided that we wouldn't wait any longer and make our way along Gervis Place to our bus stop to wait for our open top bus to take us to our next destination.

It is just after 14:00 and our Wilts and Dorset "Purbeck Breezer" service 50 arrives and we board taking our seats at the back of the open topper, which now as a door between the open top part and enclosed front part, but I wouldn't like to be sitting close to it as it had a nasty habit of swinging open quite quickly whilst en-route. We have a few minutes to wait before we are on our way and we make our way through Bournemouth and into Sandbanks (with a bit of sand getting into our eyes). We wait at Sandbanks for a few minutes for the ferry. We finally board and after a couple of minutes of swaying on the top deck, we decide to continue our journey on the bottom deck, which means that there won't be a chance for Mr UKBuses to be hit over the head with a tree branch, even though his Brylcreem needs to be taken back as his hair has moved!! We come off the Sandbanks ferry and carry on our journey with us reaching Swanage at 15:10 pulling up outside the Swanage Heritage Railway Station, we thank the driver even though it wasn't the pretty driver that we had last year - even though I did keep my eye out for her. We take a few photographs and walk down by the track to Wilts and Dorset's little depot and after taking a few more photographs we make our way back to the bus stop to get our next bus, which is where I see a flaw in Mr UKBuses plan, the next service is not until another half an hour with the summer timetable not actually yet in operation. We decide to have a walk into Swanage town and decide to have a quick pint in The White Swan where Mr UKBuses has a piddle and I have a pint of Piddle (which luckily was not the same thing), see picture right. After finishing our drinks we make our way back to the railway station where our next bus turns up, Wilts and Dorset's service 40, which departs at 16:05. The journey to our next destination takes just over an hour passing through Corfu Castle and Wareham before arriving at Poole at 17:15.

Whilst we wait in Poole we have time to take a few photographs at the bus station and we also have a walk around the corner to the Wilts and Dorset's Poole depot to take a few photographs, with buses being parked up ready to be cleaned for the next day's service. After a walk by the depot, we head back into Poole bus station where we will catch our bus back to Weymouth, and this will be the one and only time today that it will be a First in Dorset bus, but as we board the driver does allows us on as we explain that it is a Explorer ticket and at 17:40 we reverse out of Poole bus station and head back passing through Wareham and Preston before arriving at Weymouth at 18:50. We head back to The Alendale to have a freshen up before we hit the town. I tell Mr UKBuses to meet me in my regular, "The Waterloo" when he is ready and after I have a quick freshen up, I make my way around the corner to my regular and wait for Mr UKBuses. After about half an hour, Mr UKBuses arrives at The Waterloo and times it right as I am just about to go to the bar. Drinks purchased we sit down and he says that he doesn't mind The Waterloo after he thought that it wasn't a good choice when I discovered it a few years ago, but his mind has been changed. We finish our drinks and head up towards the town centre.

Our first stop in the town is a place that Mr WME discovered on our visit last year, "The Globe", and we sample the Jail Ale, there is no room at the bar so we take a seat in the corner. Mr UKBuses also enjoys this discovery and whilst we are in The Globe, we notice that there are a few deaf people that use the pub with a bit of sign language going on for a table discussion. After our visit to The Globe we also take a walk around the corner to another one of our favourites, "The Cutter", a pub that we nearly decide not to go in as the is a fracas going on outside as we near, but it soon dies down and we decide to enter. Mr UKBuses regrets this decision once he finds out that the pub is being host tonight to Karaoke, and even though I cannot tempt Mr UKBuses to get behind the microphone, I belt out a couple of tunes, mainly Metallica and even though we are about to go for a curry, I delay proceedings by about half an hour by belting out a few more of the heavier tunes of Metallica before we leave. After leaving The Cutter we make our way around to Chillies for our curry. After we have devoured our curry, we have a look at the First Depot which is virtually opposite, but we can not go for a drink in The Brownlow as we noticed that the pub has been boarded up as we went past it when we arrived on the train yesterday afternoon. After a look around the depot, we make our way back to The Alendale where Moira and Jim are still up, Mr UKBuses decides to retire, but me and Jim decide to have a nightcap around The Waterloo, but when we arrive it is closed, so Jim goes back to the guest house but I return to The Cutter to sing a few more tunes to the unsuspecting punters, I choose a couple of Metallica tunes, a couple of Bon Jovi tunes and a Robbie Williams tune before I decide to have a slow walk along the sea front with the new lasers lighting up the beach before returning to The Alendale for a good nights sleep, ready for the Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day.

Another excellent day exploring Dorset followed by a tour of Weymouth and a return of "The Rog" to Karaoke, I enjoyed it even though I could hardly speak at the end of the night.