#MiniBreeze car, bus, soldiers and a mushroom

#MiniBreeze has had two busy days.  Yesterday he did the thing that he was determined to stay and do.  You may remember he came to choose a new car for Baboon HQ in June, well yesterday he got to pick it up with us.

The car was waiting in the showroom and #MiniBreeze got straight in while we did the registration and business details.  As soon as we got it outside he decided to give it a thorough inspection.

The bonnet passed his inspection,

the wing mirrors were fun to climb on,

the back met with his approval and

he said it was good to drive.

Today he tried another form of transport.  We decided to take one of our longest walks.  We parked the car in the village of Carisbrooke, famous for its castle and got the bus to the west of the island, so that we could walk back.

We got on the bus in Carisbrooke,

carried on to Shalfleet and

got to the coastal town of Yarmouth.  Here there was great excitement, we have had UK special forces soldiers on the island for over a week, on exercises, we saw a US airforce Osprey getting some of them over here, it flew around the island for a few days.  Today they were leaving the island.

#MiniBreeze was fascinated by their amphibious craft that they were loading vehicles onto.  Luckily the bus stopped here for a while and he could watch them.  Eventually we moved on to the Needles Pleasure Park at the far end of the island.  We were so early the park was not open yet but it was where our walk started.

We climbed Needles Down and #MiniBreeze could see across to Headon Warren, the down on the other side of the island.  The island is very narrow here so you can see right across.  Headon Warren is covered with heather.

Looking back he could see towards Alum Bay where we started.  This is an interesting place because you can see the Needles rocks from there and there is coloured sand on the cliffs.

We walked from there to Freshwater, via Tennyson Down that #MiniBreeze has visited a lot, with the memorial to Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Victorian poet laureate, who lived in Freshwater.  We walked right through the golf course at Freshwater which is a links course, and reached Compton Down.

We walked right along there and onto Brook Down, where you can see the steep chalk path that we walked down and onto more and more climbing.

On Mottistone Down #MiniBreeze had quite a surprise:

that is a very big mushroom!

We walked on with more climbing and a little bit of descent, we crossed some woods and finally came out near Carisbrooke.

Now we could see views on either side.

We carried on towards Carisbrooke and were able to see the Bowcombe Valley, which is very beautiful.

Finally we descended into Carisbrooke and found the car again.  #MiniBreeze was happy to see it.

This was a 14 mile walk so we were quite tired.  We went home for tea and cake to revive us.

A long walk for #MiniBreeze

Today was a beautiful hot sunny day on the island, and as my people are off work they decided to take #MiniBreeze on a long walk with lots of climbing.

We started in Shanklin, one of the most popular holiday resorts, in the south east of the island. This is St Blasius church in the old village at Shanklin.  We had to walk around this church to start the walk.

Behind the church we climbed over this stone step and onto the wooded path ahead.  Then we started climbing.

This is about half way up.  The climb starts steadily and at this point it had become steep.  We climbed on until we reached the trig point on the top of Shanklin Down.

From here #MiniBreeze could see how far we had climbed, the town at the bottom is Shanklin.  There were also views over the Arreton Valley where they grow strawberries, sweet corn and garlic.

We carried on just behind the trig point and climbed a style, then the view changed.

This is looking west towards the downs around places like Blackgang Chine where we went with @TourGuideTed, @MarthaBBear, @ReddyTeddy1408, @TabithaTeddy, @BooBooBearGreen and @KennyBear, back in July.

#MiniBreeze could see some interesting masts in the distance.  We carried on along the top of the valley.

Along this path, looking at the valley from different angles.

We could see as far as the cliffs at Freshwater in the west of the island.

You can just see the white cliffs in the distance, although being a warm, September, sunny morning, it is a little misty.

The path carried on around the valley.

#MiniBreeze looked back at the view and the heather.  He wondered whether our dear Aunty Kathleen (@pasikas) and @mogsbear would think this looked like the highlands of Scotland.

Great excitement when #MiniBreeze got to the radar station.  This was built in 1938, used throughout WW2 (although it was bombed in 1940), and later was used to guide planes into Gatwick and Heathrow airports.  It is closed now and there is an application to build holiday accommodation on the site.  That would give great views.

We had climbed and then walked on the flat ground along the top of the valley and now it was time to come down again.  We came down along the downs road and down lots of stone steps from the little town of Lowtherville (great fish and chip shop) and upper Ventnor, to Ventnor, a seaside resort on the south of the island.

Finally we got to Ventnor and coffee at the Metro Bar on the seafront.  We like this place because they give chocolate flake with the coffee.

After coffee #MiniBreeze looked at Ventnor beach.

This is a nice beach for swimming in the sea. The sea here is the English Channel.  We walked on, along the seafront, towards the next village, Bonchurch.

#MiniBreeze checked out the bay between Ventnor and Bonchurch, it is very beautiful.

The seafront and beach at Bonchurch are very nice.  There is more to Bonchurch than just the seafront but we still had a long way to walk and it is quite a climb up to the very old church and vicarage garden.  A notable thing about Bonchurch is that Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield at East Dene house in Bonchurch.  There is also a pottery and some cafes on the seafront.

#MiniBreeze befriended this Bonchurch cat who lives nestled up to a warm sunny wall.

Bonchurch and Ventnor are serious fishing places.  #MiniBreeze found these lobster pots, which he said smelt good.

We had to climb back up onto the cliffs to get back to Shanklin but we went an interesting way via the landslip.  The cliffs slipped sometime in the 18th century, leaving this interesting wooded area that was said to be used extensively by smugglers to bring their goods ashore and to hide them.

We climbed up and down, up and down through the landslip, seeing interesting trees and plants everywhere.  This last picture is the wishing seat, that is near the Shanklin end of the landslip.  #MiniBreeze sat on it and made a wish.

After leaving the landslip you come to Luccombe Common which has a small village, just houses, no shops or church, but you can buy jam.  There is a Luccombe Jam Man, who makes jam and puts it out for people to buy, you can find jam there almost any day of the year.  We bought a jar of greengage and a jar of damson jam this time.  It is specially good jam!!

We walked onto the road and down towards Sandown bay and the town of Shanklin.

When we got back to Ryde we all felt that we deserved an ice cream, we had walked eight miles with lots of climbing and we were hungry.  #MiniBreeze couldn't choose between salted caramel and millionaires shortcake flavours so he had a bit of each, sharing it with our people.

#MiniBreeze sees sun sea and berries

Today was a beautiful day on the island and we decided to take a shorter, but very interesting walk.  This walk is about five miles long and is in one of the most beautiful parts of the island, to the north west around a village called Newtown.  We started by parking in Shalfleet village and walking along the road to Newtown.

#MiniBreeze is always fascinated by the produce he sees on sale by the roadside.  This stall had marrows, plums, apples, flowers and runner beans.  We bought some runner beans to have with our dinner tonight.  We walked on and soon #MiniBreeze came to a bridge where he could see the creek.

The creek is prettier when the tide is in but it is a nice spot to catch a sun puddle.  We walked on and #MiniBreeze saw this building in the distance.

It was all on its own by the side of the lane.  We walked around it.

#MiniBreeze decided to sunbathe outside the building before investigating.

On investigation he found that it was:

Newtown Old Town Hall.  This is a Georgian building, it is not used now.  What a tiny town hall!

#MiniBreeze like the views around here, he likes countryside.

Newtown is a pretty village with cottages like this.  It is very small with a tiny high street with a few cottages and no shops.

#MiniBreeze climbed on the old town pump, this is where the people of the village used to come to get their water.  It was installed in 1894 and restored in 1983, but it is no longer in use, of course!

Moving on we came to the church.  It is Sunday so we did not go in but #MiniBreeze looked from the outside.  Then we carried on into a field.

#MiniBreeze was surprised to see masts of boats on the other side of the field.

We walked around the field and onto the harbour wall.

We could see to the little town harbour from there.

At the harbour #MiniBreeze found a boat to play on.  It was on land so he didn't get to sail it.

We walked back to the town along this boardwalk, its quite long and interesting.

One of the features of this area is that they get a lot of different, interesting birds here.  I must be honest and say baboons do not make good bird watchers.  We are friendly with birds we meet but we are not good at staying still for long and being quiet so Mini-Kolo doesn't tend to stop here when he does this walk.  Of course #MiniBreeze, being a cat, is more interested in birds and he stopped to see what birds had been seen there.

We carried on and soon came to a woodland walk.  #MiniBreeze likes woods because he can climb trees and we are in agreement with him there.  Climbing trees is one of the many things that baboons and cats have in common.

#MiniBreeze saw another bird watching hut on a causeway out in the harbour.

The we turned back and walked back to Shalfleet a different way.

We met some very nice looking cows and stopped for a chat.

Baboons are a bit dismissive of bird watching but we do love fruit and #MiniBreeze stopped to gather some blackberries for us.  You find lots of blackberries on this walk.

#MiniBreeze also found these mushrooms.  As none of us at Baboon HQ know much about mushrooms we decided to leave them in the field.  Some ladies died a few years ago on the island after picking mushrooms, so we do not pick them, we buy them in the shops, but #MiniBreeze was fascinated to see how they grow.

Finally, back in Shalfleet #MiniBreeze met some friendly ducks in the mill pond, and stopped for a chat!!