Friday 21 November 2014

Island Visit

A job which needs to be done each winter, is to strip and re varnish “Chance’s”  Taff rail.  James usually chooses  Nitromors (at about £8 a tin) to attack the varnish.   It does the job but it’s still a bit of devil to get all the varnish off.

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This year he tried Wilko’s own brand (at £3 a tin!) and it’s excellent – all the varnish comes off first time and no heavy scraping  ….

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….. it’s worth a try.

On Wednesday morning we took the car ferry across to the Isle of Wight for a couple of days.

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Portsmouth looked good in the morning sunshine as we left the mainland.

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We stayed with friend Jonathan and his lovely big dog “Sasha”.

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Although she’s getting on a bit, Sasha enjoyed a bit of stick retrieval on the beach with Doug.

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The island basks in sunshine most of the time – and Yarmouth still looks spick and span.

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Cotland is the closest bit of the island to the mainland (at Hurst Castle).  Once upon a time it was exiting to see big cruise liners using this channel on their approach to Southampton – instead they now go round the east of the island.

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The very pretty thatched church of St Agnes at Freshwater was built in 1908 ………

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…….. and at Freshwater Bay itself there are spectacular views eastwards along the south coast of the island.

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The island’s south coast is being severely eroded, with big chucks of  land going into the sea.  This used to be a car park and viewpoint and the council have recently sowed grass where the tarmac used to be.

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Down on the beach there is still evidence of the car park (white lines and all!)

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The majestic bulk of Tennyson Down looks wonderful in the sunshine.

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Another reminder of the land erosion with part of the coast road now closed completely …….

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…… but further along the coast “Hi De Hi” is still alive!  This lovely old holiday camp is well kept and very attractive.

We returned from the island this evening (on a delayed ferry!)having had a really great couple of days with Jonathan and “Sasha” and a big ‘thank you’ goes to both of them.

2 comments:

  1. Hi both. That wouldn't be the camp at Whitecliff Bay, would it? We used to have family holidays there when I was a nipper!

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    1. Hi Geoff, It was Brighstone Holiday camp on the South side of the island.

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