Another day off!!

My people had another Friday off this week.  Sadly the last one for my person for quite a while.  However, we were very lucky because, like last week, the weather has been beautiful.  Baboon HQ decided to take advantage of this.

We started with breakfast.  Manperson makes great pancakes.  We had them with Canadian maple syrup and coffee out of our Zack Rabbit mug.  That was a Canadian start to the day.

Then Mini-Kolo set out.  He had the people drive him to the west of the island again, but this time the north coast rather than the Downs.  He started in Yarmouth, and walked along the seafront to Victoria Country Park.

Victoria Country Park is a wooded area on the north coast just west of Yarmouth.  There is a fort there (Fort Victoria),  with a tea shop but the tea shop was closed until 28 March, so no coffee there!

Mini-Kolo walked through the park until he got to the end of the wood.

From there he could see the sea.  This is Hurst Castle that we showed you from the Downs last week.  Behind that is Dorset.

Kolo walked on until he found a useful fence for a rest, where he could look back on where he had been.

He is looking across the fields, back towards Yarmouth.

Not much further on Mini-Kolo could see the Needles.

You can just about see them through the branches, just off the end of the landmass.  You are right you cannot see Mini-Kolo!  That is because he was in the way of the Needles when he sat on the hedge.  He also had some grumble about spikey bits of the hedge sticking into him but I'm not sure what that was all about.  It is a constant complaint of his!

The Needles are chalk stacks off the far west end of the island.  It is thought that they are the remainder of where the island used to be joined to the mainland.  Over in Dorset there are other chalk stacks called Old Harry rocks and it is thought that those, used to join with the Needles to join the island the mainland.  They are made of chalk so the sea would have eroded them.

Mini-Kolo carried on to the little town of Freshwater, which is separated from Freshwater Bay, that he visited last week.  The combination of hunger and a convenient tea shop led to a stop here.  You all know about Mini-Kolo's coffee habit!

Yes he had coffee.  He also had a hot raspberry crumble muffin.  He gave the Sugarloaf tea shop in Freshwater town a high baboon rating for food, coffee and service.

Mini-Kolo carried on past the cafe he visited for lunch last week, the End of the Line (yes, he did manage to pass it).  He reached the causeway at Freshwater.

This is a lovely place on the island with ducks and swans, a nice church and a pub.  There were no ducklings yet.

Mini-Kolo turned his attention towards Yarmouth.  He was to walk along the disused railway next to the East Yar river to Yarmouth and lunch.

Mini-Kolo has often posted pictures of this path.  It is very beautiful.  He was keen to get to Yarmouth this time.  Why?

He wanted to get a good table at the Gossips Cafe in Yarmouth.  A good table at the Gosspis is one with a sea view.  You can see the mainland from here but the low cloud over there makes it a bit difficult to see in this picture.  However, he got a good table.  Mission accomplished!

A cheese and pineapple melt with salad and coleslaw!!  Not sure why manperson looks as though he is falling off his chair here but you can't always make out what humans are doing.

Mini-Kolo had a good day but there was one disappointment.  We wanted to get pictures of snowdrops and primroses for you.  Now Mini-Kolo did see some of each, but getting pictures would have involved him climbing into peoples' gardens.  We know Mini-Kolo is quite capable of climbing, no fence of gate is too much for him, so why didn't he?

Well this is a ethical issue.  Baboon HQ is not just a law abiding organization, it is also an ethical one.  Our code of ethics involves not invading other peoples' property.  It was be embarrassing to have Mini-Kolo arrested for trespass, whilst on Baboon HQ business, but equally disturbing would be the breaking of our code of ethics.  Sometimes Mini-Kolo has to be reminded of this, but it is only because of his enthusiasm to give the readers of the blog everything he can.

We will try to find some of these flowers on Sunday.

Thank you for reading.