Ozil explores

Hi, another lovely day at Baboon HQ and no work today so we went for another walk.  Ozil wanted to be n the pictures, and I am sure you will agree that he is the best dressed baboon at HQ.  We drove to Arreton and walked along another disused railway.

You can tell it was a railway because of the railway gates.

We came to Merstone Station, where Ozil was surprised to find that somebody had left their luggage on the platform for so long that it had turned to stone.

There was a little confusion here because Ozil was not sure whether he was following the Troll Trail, or

The Red Squirrel Trail!!  We get red squirrels on the island, no grey ones, but we do not often see them as they are much shyer than the grey ones.  We have never actually seen one on this trail.  However, we have never really seen a troll either.  Or perhaps we have.  Mini-Breeze found one, when he was visiting.

The island is full of rhododendron plants, at the moment, and Ozil likes them a lot.  He found these fine bushes near the car.

Well today is another lovely day and we will go on another adventure.  We are not getting all the things done that we had hoped to this week, but the weather is so nice!!

Aboo's outing

Another lovely day, and no work, so we had another outing.  This time Aboo wanted to be in the pictures.  He is quite a character!  We did a favourite walk.

We started at Freshwater Bay and climbed up onto the Downs.  Aboo was quite proud of himself for doing that and he looked back at where he had been.  Then we climbed up Tennyson Down.

This was a bit much for Aboo and he dramatically stretched out on a bench claiming to be exhausted.

After a rest he had a look at the Tennyson memorial and explored his surroundings a bit.

He looked over at the mainland.

He checked out the distances to various places.

From there he looked at where we would be going next.  We were walking right to the end of the island, above the Needles.  He was pleased to see that the next part would be down hill.

From there he climbed a tree to see the views.  He looked in all directions.

All rather beautiful!  It's good to be a baboon and be able to climb trees because you can see a lot more things.

We walked to the end of the island and back to the foot of Tennyson Down.

Aboo was a bit put out to see that he had to climb again.

He put up a bit of a protest, folded arms, not doing it!!

Oh well, it worked, he managed to hitch a lift!!  Well done Aboo!

Finally lunch.  We went to the Dandelion Cafe in the Haven walking holidays hotel.  Aboo is a skinny chap but he eats plenty.  He couldn't make up his mind between the humus with pitta or the nachos with sour cream and salsa, so he decided to have a bit of both.

More adventures to come!!

Hot day out!

We are having very good weather on Baboon Island, so Harry decided to go out and see the sights.  He did a walk that Russell did recently, the Freshwater Way.

This walk takes you along a disused railway track alongside the River Yar (there are two rivers on the island called Yar, this is the West Yar, guess what the other one is called).  Harry climbed up to check the tide, which was clearly out.

A little further on, and out of the trees, he could see more.  He looked towards where we were going and back towards Yarmouth where we started, you can just see the expensive boats there.

We reached the causeway at Freshwater, where Harry had a rest.  He wanted to talk to ducks but the tide was too far out. After that we turned off the disused railway and soon we were in fields.

First Harry looked towards where we were going, the hill ahead of him is the home of the Freshwater golf club and then you get to the sea.  He also saw some horses but they seemed big so he kept his distance.

After the golf club we turned inland again, through a nature reserve and into fields backing onto a hotel.  Harry found that not all horses are quite so big.  These ones were far less scary.

After walking eight miles it was time for lunch at Gossips Cafe in Yarmouth.  Harry could choose between the cheese, ham and pineapple melt without ham, or the cheese ham and pineapple melt without pineapple.  I can see he is leaning towards the one with pineapple.

After lunch he had a look at Yarmouth Harbour.  This monster ate the wood beams in the old pier.  Harry was brave to climb on him.

The Yarmouth lifeboat was in the harbour so Harry had a look.  He likes lifeboats.

Then he looked at some expensive boats in the harbour.  On balance we baboons prefer to stay on land so he didn't want to actually go on them.

Harry had a great day out and it was very warm.  He did remember to put sunscreen on and we hope all of you do to.

Thank you for reading.  More adventures to come.