Swanage seaside and more monkey fun

I’ve just got back from a week in the pretty seaside town of Swanage, where thankfully we seemed to escape the horrible weather.

My time was spent browsing the cute independent shops filled with trinkets, semi precious stones and fossils native to the Jurassic Coast, Chococo the luxurious handmade chocolate shop, the Purbeck deli and numerous second hand book shops (this seems very popular there!)

We also enjoying more primate action at Monkey World (we also visited earlier this year) catching up with some familiar faces, including playful chimps Bryan and Rodders, and Ben who I was surprised to see has grown to a very impressive size, and the adorable young Sumatran orang-utan Sylvestre.

We also took a Hogwarts Express-esque trip on a steam train on the heritage Swanage railway over to Corfe Castle, which was inspiration for Kirrin Castle off of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories. As well as exploring the picturesque castle ruins themselves I particularly enjoyed a visit to the Ginger Pop Shop, dedicated to Enid Blyton books and period memorabilia – I was a massive fan of so many of her books when I was younger.