As the holidays began (and after I went up to Lewa for the annual Half Marathon in the Conservancy with work colleagues, and also the annual Nairobi Expressway Half Marathon the following week), the girls went to Germany for a week and then we met up in the UK.
We spent a day at the beach (in England, remember) as the weather was quite good, together with my wider family. The kids really enjoyed playing in the rock pools as well as on the sand and it was very successful, despite having to relocate our small tent for shade (which was not used, typically!) and our bags a few times as the tide came in. The beaches North-east of London in Essex won't win any awards, but it was not too far to go.
Next up though was 5 days in the Isle of Wight together with my Mum. This began with a ferry from Portsmouth, which of course initially had Leah moaning about getting up early for, but once she was on the ferry, she decided she loved ferries. So we all enjoyed sitting upstairs in the wind, seeing the military ships in the distance and a hovercraft passenger ferry overtake us.
We initially headed East and ended up at the Wight Aviation Museum, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Run by volunteers and put together in an aircraft hanger, there was a massive amount of stuff - from bits of airplanes and helicopters to uniforms, stories, sound exhibits, puzzles and all the history one would want about the World Wars. They even had a Virtual Reality activity that hooked up the goggles to the steering in a small cockpit. We spent a couple of hours on the Sandown Beach next to the run-down pier and then passed by the Arreton Barns, which has a dozen or more local craft shops next to each other.
We stayed at the Thorness Bay Park Dean Resort in what Americans may call a trailer, but in the UK we might call a caravan or a Static Home. It was fine for eating and cooking dinners in (there was a small shop on site), and we didn't really use any of the facilities at the site, like the pool or other activities, but there were some nice views and I had some nice runs in the morning.
On the Tuesday we went to see the Needles, walking from the car park up to the tip to seem close-up and visit the small military defences there (known as the Old Battery) which was also really interesting and fun with tunnels, underground rooms and some nice exhibits and views (and of course a nice cafe with Cream Tea). After that we drove along the spectacular Military Road that runs along the South Coast of the Isle of Wight to spend a few hours at the Carisbrooke Castle, which is also really interesting and well done. We stayed until the demonstration of the donkey in the water wheel, as that was how they used to get water from the well (nowadays the donkeys do barely a few minutes of work each day just to show the tourists).
On the Wednesday we went to Blackgang Chine, which was the country's first ever theme park, back when the reason it was called a Theme Park is because there were not really any rides, there were just different themed lands/areas to explore (like deserts, wild west, under the sea and the like). Nowadays there are a few rides (literally just a few), so it is not really much fun, but it is OK to spend half a day at, and the 2 rides (another 1 was closed) were quite fun - at least Leah really enjoyed the one that goes upside down, and we all enjoyed the other one where you sit on a ring and go down big slide. We had to have a Cream Team afterwards of course, in Godshill, a pretty village in the middle of the Island.
On the Thursday we went back to Godshill to explore the village and the shops. We also went on a nice walk to the Donkey Sanctuary, which the kids and my mum quite liked (and which also had a nice Cream Tea, of course!) On the Friday we did really wonderful walk in the Newtown National Nature Reserve. Not only was the path (partly a Boardwalk) really nice, the views were great (including of the old port that now just has a few fishing boats using it), there was a nice little bird watching hide, but the staff there also had made a great little hut with tea and water, some local exhibits and gave kids little packs with binoculars and nature treasure hunt items. Throughout the weather continued to be fantastic!
Next up was a quite cool tree climbing adventure by Apple Beach, which Leah did really well at. It was not really climbing up a tree per se, it was climbing up ropes that were tied to a massive tree, and which had some hammocks in. We finished our wonderful 5 days in the Isle of Wight at the spectacular Osborne House, which was where Queen Victoria spent a fair amount of her time (and actually where she died). Then it was time to get the ferry back to the Mainland and the drive home. In the course of the week we had covered almost everything we wanted to cover and seen most of the island (in fact many roads we went down multiple times!) It is a great place to spend a few days!
No comments:
Post a Comment