Freshwater to the Needles

Today was sunny in Ryde, so we decided to go for a walk from Freshwater to the Needles.  Unfortunately it wasn't very sunny in Freshwater, but we went ahead anyway.  It started with a long climb.  We decided to check what we were in for before starting.

We were a little concerned about the hill!  We managed though.  Half way up we stopped to look at the view.

It is a very nice view over Freshwater Bay.  Then we went on up to the top.

We still had to do more climbing, we got up to Tennyson's Memorial.  Alfred Lord Tennyson was the royal poet for Queen Victoria and he had a house called Farringford, near Freshwater.  It has been a hotel since then.

The memorial can be seen all over the west of the island up on Tennyson Down.  Tennyson walked on the downs a lot so I suppose he was entitled to have a down named after him.  We walk on the downs a lot too so I wonder which one they will re-name Kolo Down!

Anyway we still had a way to go.

After the monument we walked down the hill and on High Down.  You can see it in the distance and the famous Needles are below it.  Sadly you can't see the Needles from High Down because they were too far down.  Baboons will always try to see things if they can so we thought climbing a tree might help.

Honestly it didn't but we baboons always love to climb trees so it wasn't wasted.  We walked out to the Needles, even though we couldn't see them and then we came back the same way.  It was a nice walk and left us with an appetite for lunch.  We went to Daffodils Cafe in the Haven Walking Holiday Centre in Freshwater House.  Its a nice spot and I would give it three baboons in the new baboon rating system.

We really needed lunch after all that walking!!

Then well, home because there was (still is) a big game this afternoon, so I was needed to join the Arsenal fans at home.  So here is our version of Arsene's red and white army!!  It looks like the Emirates on the Isle of Wight in here.

Come on Arsenal!! Yes the sweet little goat is actually a Cologne/Koln mascot that Mookie left me.  He joins the Arsenal fans to watch his favourite player, Podolski! Come on Arsenal.

Cats, bears and baboons

Its been quite a week for us at Baboon HQ, meeting friends new and old.

The first thing that happened was on Saturday.  Well I keep saying Baboon HQ is full, but it always turns out that it isn't.  On Saturday a new baboon arrived to live here.  He came out of his box just as Lukasz Podolski scored for Arsenal, so he chose the name Lukasz.

Yes he is the same size as Jackson (mini-kolo/travelling-kolo).  He is a heck of a good looking young baboon isn't he.  I don't think he really looks like me, more like Marley Baboon really.  Anyway he is settling in well and we are fending off female baboons because he is far too young for that.

Then on Sunday I was reunited with on of the rehomed baboons, Arty, who lives with @Bertie_Junior.  We went for a sunny, muddy walk in the Surrey Hills.

I do wish my person would stop expecting me to sit in brambles for photos, its not funny!!

We had a walk and picnic lunch.  We found a great tree trunk to sit on for lunch.

 

Arty, I hate to mention this but is that person behind us running away with our picnic?  Oh no that's all right our picnic is in a different bag, phew!  Wouldn't like anyone to pinch our bananas.

After eating lunch we did some climbing while the humans were chatting.

 

 

Climbing is important to us baboons so we needed to practice out skills.

 

After the walk I had another great treat I went to meet @Bertie_Junior.  Bertie and I played hide and seek and I did find her under the bench.  It was a hot day and she wanted to stay cool.

 

 

Bertie Junior is a lovely cat and we had a good long chat while I sat in the sun and she stayed cool in the shade.  I think we got on well.

 

Another treat for me was to meet with another rehomed baboon, Hudson who normally lives with @Bertie_Cat but who was visiting @Bertie_Junior and Arty for a short holiday.

 





Baboons enjoy the sunshine so we chatted in the sun while Bertie Junior stayed cool.

So, you mentioned bears in the title so where are the bears?  I hear you ask.  Yes, there were bears, as if all that wasn't enough excitement for one week I started the weekend early by meeting our good friends @Henryandfriends and @Bear_Berkeley.  Its always lovely to see Henry, but I hadn't seen Berkeley for two years so that was a treat.

Berkeley gave me some brown Norweigan cheese.

I will try that later today with my toast.  I have never had it before.

Even when I am being mini-kolo Berkeley is much smaller than me so we put the cheese straight to good use for him to sit on so I could give him a Kolo Hug.

We knew that cheese would be useful.

It was lovely to see Berkeley and Henry again and we chatted for ages in the cafe as we had a lot to catch up on.

Oh yes the cafe, ummm they had lovely cakes.

I expect you are wondering which of these lovely cupcakes or chocolate cake I had.  Well I am sorry to tell you that, these days, my person seems to think that cakes have an evil agenda so we didn't get any.  Oh well, Henry and I know where to find them again next time.

Jen's visit

Well we are all quite sad because Jens has gone home.  However, we had a fantastic time when he was visiting and it was wonderful to have a rehomed baboon visit Baboon HQ.  Jens has blogged quite a lot about his visit so I thought I'd just fill in the gaps.

Jens came with his best friend Bunny and they gaved me some lovely presents.  The best ever was these bananas.  They are yummy, you can see Freddy is eyeing them up.

Jens also brought along Otto this lovely Arsenal supporting bunny, to come and live at Baboon HQ.  When my people were walking down the road on Saturday with Otto, a gentleman gave him these cupcakes.  We think it was one of those random acts of kindess, or cupcakes in this instance.

Jens has shown you most of the food we had but he missed this lemon meringue pie in God's Providence House in Newport, it is rather spectacular.  We didn't eat it though, we came home and I made a banana cake.

Jens and I had trouble waiting for it to cool before we ate it. I also made apple cake but that disappeared before we even got a picture!

You have seen most of our adventures except for the last day.

I was very sad when they had to leave and I did hug Jens and bunny a lot.  I am pleased to say that Jens has remembered his hugging lessons well.

They went off to Portsmouth to see Henry but that wasn't the end of it.  In the evening we went over to Portsmouth too.  Well Mini-Kolo and Freddy did.

Mini-Kolo seemed to manage to get hold of this glass of beer, it would have been big even for me!!

I don't think he could pick it up so he is look around for help.  Mini-Kolo and Freddy had pizza, of course!

It was a very yummy pizza, Freddy looks as though he can't wait to get into it and Mini-Kolo is making sure it doesn't disappear.

Well we are baboons so when it came to pudding (and it always comes to pudding), we had a banoffee split.

No, don't be silly we didn't share one, we had one each, come on we are baboons after all!!

After that we left Jens and Bunny with Henry and went home.  We are sorry to see them go, but we had a great time during their visit.  I am sure we will see them again before too long.  I hope they enjoyed themselves, they certainly enjoyed the fish and chips.  Yes they disappeared too quickly to be photographed.

Oh dear, this blog has been all about food!!  Well and beer!!

Thank you for reading and thank you to Jens and Bunny for visiting and for our lovely presents.

Far east, far west: The sun shines at Baboon HQ

Hello friends!

This is Jens again. I am still on the Isle of Wight and having fun at Baboon HQ. As you can see on the picture  below, Mini-Kolo and me went on the choo choo train to the famous Needles in the far west.

The choo choo train isn't the fastest, so we needed some lunch first. With full bellies and very cheerful we started our walk up the hill.

On our walk we saw sheep and cows and some of the few wild English baboons. Sadly we were too slow too take a picture. We walked a loooong time and were about to give up but Mini-Kolo suddenly screamed "there they are". Woooohooooo! We made it! The Needles are awesome even if they look a bit like teeth. What do you think? Btw. they are the little thinggies erm rocks in the sea.

As we arrived back at Baboon HQ I had much to tell. Bunny, Freddie and Snowdrop were very interested like you can see.

Our next trip lead us to Bembridge in the far east of the Isle. The cliffs are lovely! You can the ones of Sandown. Really impressing. 

Bembridge is the town of the lifeguards who have a huge orange boat. Mini-Kolo and I took look and a little ride as the others weren't watching. Hehe.

Secret boat rides making hungry. So we went to the famous Tollgate Cafe at the harbor and plenty of chips with vinegar. A sweet old couple is running the Cafe and the old Lady who took our order forgot about it immediately and had to ask again and again. But we are patient baboons anyway and we love the old Lady. If you are in Bembridge pop into Tollgate Cafe.

The last mill of the IOW you can also find in ... Bembridge, of course! How clever were the people in the past to use the power of the wind to do their work. Really CLEVER!

And finally *drum roll* Ice Cream! It was the perfect day for it with lots of sun. It's Minghella's Fresh Strawberry and Old English Toffee. The ice cream man on wheels made my day! Thanks!

Here I am at Kolo's favorite place on the Isle, at Quarr Abbey. It's so beautiful and peaceful. Just a perfect place for relaxing. If you can't find Kolo at home, check out the Abbey. He will for sure hang around the Cafe with a big pot of coffee.

So, now it's time for some apple cake. They spoil Bunny and me here which we enjoy lots. Thank you, Kolo! *big hugs*

Lots of love from Jens and =:X)

PS: Olly (@ollyted), I forgot to post this pic last time. Henry and me waving the Marmosets from you:

Baboon HQ visit (without ice cream so far)

Hello all!

This is Jens. Kolo is so nice to let me blog. Thank you for that and the lovely company. So Bunny's and my journey started at the Frankfurt Airport. We had to be up so early that we almost fell asleep at the Airport cafe.

So the first order of the day was: coffee! Here we go:

After the coffee opened my eyes (so it should do it says on the cup) I was ready to take off. The flight was a bit wobbly but ok. After a bit more than an hour Bunny and me arrived in England. This is first pic of me on English ground. The eyes are still open wide.

After a long train ride to Portsmouth Henry picked us up and brought us to the Hovercraft (Thank you, Henry!). But before we went over to the IOW we had to chat a bit and have some more coffee. It was already gone and we kept on chatting like you can see here:

We jumped on the Hovercraft and 10 mins later we arrived at the sunshine coast. As you can see at the picture there are lovely palms and it feels almost like in the caribbean.

As we arrived at Baboon HQ the big hugging started. I was so happy to see Kolo again and meet all of the other baboons. Freddie welcomed Bunny and me as well and we shared some Surprise Eggs. But we totally forgot about opening them over all the chatting.

Look at the lovely view at the Solent. We can't get enough of it:

Today Henry came over and we were visiting together the lovely Monkey and Owl haven. We waved to the Marmosets from Olly (@ollyted) and tried to say Hi to Fudge from Clapton (@claptonterrier) but he didn't show up. It was cold and also some snowflakes said Hello. But we didn't mind and did relax on the big tree.

After a lovely day with our sweet friends, Henry brought us home with his brand new caravan. Mini-Kolo, Henry, Bunny and me had much fun on the ride. 

We are having a great time at Baboon HQ! Some more days to come. Yay! 

*huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugs*

Jens and =:X)