A week on the Isle of Wight June 2017

On arrival on the Isle of Wight the weather was terrible, the wind was so bad we had seven fenders down one side of the boat all at different heights as it was being pushed over at different angles. Although at times over the week the wind occasionally improved slightly it was laways there and not suitable in the direction we wanted to go. We made the decision to stay put and make the most of our time on the Isle of Wight. As places go there are worse places to be storm bound than Yarmouth.

The IOW bus service is terrific and we bought a week long bus pass each for £24 per person and hopped on and off buses like a good 'un. Roll on my OAP bus pass, judging on this week I'll make good use of it. We definitely got our £24 worth, on three trips I would have spent £27 and I did use it every day.

First of all Yarmouth is a lovely little town and there is lots to explore there and several walks start from here so we were happy. The buses run every half an hour to Newport, which is the hub of the bus service. The Island Breezer also ran from here, which is an open top bus. There are two other Breezer routes which hadn't started as it was too early in the season. Mind you I doubt we would have time to use them as we were pretty busy.

We also hit the English Heritage Card as there are three English Heritage sites on the Island. I would like to say I also got ours monies worth out of that. Over the year I would have spent more  going into the places I visited than the cost of the yearly pass. You can see I always like to get my moneys worth.

There is loads to see and do on the Isle of Wight.

You can't go to the Isle of Wight without going to Cowes. We really enjoyed wandering round despite it being a bit on the blustery side. The cannon amused me, they are outside the Yacht Club and assume they are for setting off the really 'posh' races.

Osborne House - speaks for it's self but this really is a great day out. I went by myself as John didn't fancy it but I thoroughly enjoyed mooching around. I did the lot house, walk to the beach, Swiss Cottage and Walled garden. This included walks through the woods. Would highly recommend this visit. It took me longer to get home as ot was the beginning of the Isle of Wight festival so there were road closures in place and lots of traffic jams.

Part of the formal garden from an upper floor window.

From the beach looking over to Portsmouth.

Front of the house.

Little shelter on the beach.

Another view of the house.

Carisbrooke Castle
We were both really taken by Carisbrooke Castle, it has been featured on Country file fairly recently and they had the donkey that draw water from the well. In days gone by they had a terrible life but now they only work six minutes a day. Jack, the donkey we saw, actually put himself in the wheel when he knew the lady was coming to the end of her spiel. They are retired at 18 years old and can then live to gone thirty. Super castle, we were there ages exploring. Definitely worth a visit.

We had a walk to Freshwater Bay, stopped halfway for lunch at the Red Lion. THe walk took us to the other side of the Island so we jumped on a bus from there and went to see the needles and the Battery. It was also the test site for some rockets, the actual rockets themselves were launched in Australia. We didn't go in the National Trust bit as they were charging exorbitant prices to go into a tiny bit of space. The photos are brilliant as it was so windy and blustery, it was hard to stand up.

A Grey day round the Needles.

It looked very rough in the Needles Channel, which is where we'd be sailing in a few days.

Looking down to Alum Bay.

The coloured sands in the cliff. It was so windy the cable car wasn't running.

Doing selfies on a camera is not easy. John had definitely lost interest be this point. The previous four included my chin, John's ear and other random bits of our faces.

We managed to go down to Alum Bay on a calmer day. We walked down and took the cable car back up. I found that a bit nerve wracking. Although John is not over keen on heights he's happy with this cable car as it uses the ropes (steel cables to you and me) that he worked with down the pit. So he knows how strong they are.

The Needles on a different day from a different angle. Still a bit rough.

Looking back as we went up in the cable car. John took this as I wasn't moving an inch and eyes forward all the time!

The Different coloured sands.

The amazing coloured sands.

I managed a quick photo while we were going up.

For some reason the pictures above are a bit out of sync as every time I tried to add a caption they jumped to a different position on the page. I decided to leave them in the right place but the wrong order.

Apart from jumping on and off buses we did a lot of walking. We walked from Ventor to Shanklin via the coastal path, it was a bit more up hill and down dale than I thought it would be but a most enjoyable walk. That was finished off with Lobster Bisque at the Fisherman's Cottage which is on the beach. We were running out of time for the bus back as they were only once an hour (Sunday) so we got the elevator to the top of the hill. The ridiculous thing is you can only get a return ticket. We said we weren't coming back this year, the young man assured me as long as I kept the ticket I could us it, even if it was in two years time. I told him that I'd definitely keep it. It's in the back of my phone as I will be wondering where I hid it in two years time.

This has been a brief romp round the Isle of Wight, we really enjoyed ourselves here. There is so much else we did and saw.

Next stop Cherbourg.