The Jolly Sailor!

Made famous by the 1980's Nautical 'Soap' "Howard's Way", this most wonderful characterful old pub on the River Hamble was sheer pure bliss early this afternoon. Warm, with a whisper of a breeze.

It really is all that you would expect and hope - a Cornish pirate's paradise in Hampshire at Burseldon.

Trains stop every hour (on the very busy Southampton/Portsmouth line) not far away and you have to clamber down STEEP steps, with views out towards the modern Marina, which, here, is behind me.

I'm on the floating landing pontoon here, which did rise and dip rather, not helpful when taking photos. I did buy a couple of expensive soft drinks (the prices, not the drinks themselves!) and an ice cream and just spent a couple of hours idly sitting where you can see the people having their lunch, getting some lovely creative zoomed in shots of reflections of the boats etc.

There's the traditional, nicely slightly untidy Elephant boatyard, that literally could have been out of Howard's Way, on the left (of the cottage), where the loudest sound was an occasional handheld hammer tapping away.

Eventually, I drew myself away, back up those devishly steep steps and  to the railway station. I did feel I could have done more and gone further at the time, but I didn't want to push enjoyment into endurance.  There isn't really a great deal else to see and do in the village anyway.

The Jolly Sailor was quite quiet, being a Monday, which was perfect but I can imagine the atmosphere on a warm summer evening at dusk.

That's for another day.