South Bank Tweetup

Hi!!  We haven't blogged for a while because work has been busy and we haven't been doing much else really except chilling out.

However, yesterday Ryan Baboon went on a tweet-up.  He went instead of Mini-Kolo, because Tulip Jenkins was there and she wanted to meet Ryan.  Who knows why!!

Ryan had to get up early.  Not one of his strengths!!  He got the ferry to Portsmouth.

Here he is looking out of the ferry window at the Fishbourne Terminal.

Ryan had had to get up early, which he is not very keen on, but he found a seat on the ferry where he could have a sleep.

After sleeping on the ferry and through the car journey, he slept on the District Line train.

By the time we reached the South Bank Centre Ryan had had enough sleep and he was ready to say hello to Tour Guide Ted and his pals Frank and Theo.

Ah, now this is a slightly sticky situation.  No, Ryan hadn't been arrested.  The problem is that because Ryan is much bigger than Mini-Kolo he filled the rucksack and there was no room for Leroy.  Now an unforeseen situation was that WPC Evelyn Hall was there and Leroy is really keen on her.  Oh dear! Ryan has been studiously avoiding Leroy since he got back.  Evelyn is lovely!!  I am sure Leroy will get a chance to meet her one day.

More pals arrived, Tulip Jenkins, Reddy Teddy, BooBoo Bear Grean and Arpad bear with Samson and Deliah and Charlie.  Don't they look great in their panda jumpers!!

Sorry this picture won't stay rotated, not sure why, but anyway, Jezzer Bear had arrived!!  Dressed in his great Star Trek gear!  Cool guy!!

We went out to the Christmas market, which was very crowded!!  There was beer and food.  Baboons are not allowed beer, it makes us behave oddly, but Ryan was not bothered about that, because he got his favourite food, a big Baboon HQ favourite!  Macaroni cheese!!  Happy Baboon!!  That warmed him up.

After dinner Ryan felt energetic and decided to climb the Christmas trees!!  Well he is a baboon!

Tulip joined him, although she is not a baboon!!  She rather likes Ryan.

After that we had to leave to get our ferry back to the island.  As we were leaving Japp Bear arrived, it was nice to meet him but there was no time for pictures.  We had a lovely day, it was great to see everyone and to meet Jezzer, Tulip and Arpad for the first time.  It was a real honour to meet one of the Emergency Teds,  We hope Leroy will get a chance to meet them too as they are major favourites of his.

There may have been the need for WPC Hall to take action not long after we left.  A lot of beer was being drunk and some teds appeared to be heading towards disorderly behaviour.  What a good job Evelyn was there, I hope nobody needed the services of Dr Ted!!

A most beautiful walk

Another hot day and another walk.  I can't think why we have not done this walk recently, it is one of the most beautiful walks on the island and we used to do it often.  I think maybe it didn't seem long enough, but we have made it a bit longer.  We started at the End of the Line Cafe in Freshwater and walked through Freshwater town and down to Colwell Bay.

We love the colourful bathing huts there.  Everyone has gone to so much trouble to make their bathing hut look nice.

We walked along to Totland Bay, this is just past Colwell.  Harry could see the Needles rocks, but you can't because at that stage visibility was quite poor.

At Totland Harry indulged in some fish wrestling, this is a strange fish.

This is a bit fishy!!  I am not sure whether Harry's posture here shows whether he has won or lost!!

Anyway we moved on to Totland Bay.

This is a lovely bay and again we could see the Needles, and the mainland, but you can't.  This was just before the moment when the sun came out and it was suddenly very hot.

We walked up the road a little way, climbing steeply, and got to the cliff path.  There is a woody bit there and we did some climbing.

We soon found a vantage point to check out the path ahead.  We continued along this path until we came out on Headon Warren, which is a bit of a heath-land, and very beautiful.

There is a lot of interesting wild life and history up there.

The heath is very beautiful.  It is the opposite cliff to Tennyson Down, that we climb very often, but the soil is different and so there is much more growth of bracken and heather here.

This is the other part of the island where we find heather.  We could smell this heather it was beautiful.

We could see the mainland from here an Hurst Castle.  Unfortunately the autumn mist makes it difficult for you to see it.

Now you can just see the Needles.  This is as far as you can go.  The view around was lovely.  We walked back the same way and had lunch at the End of the Line Cafe.

Today is very wet and we have achy legs so we may not go too far today.  Thank you for reading about our walks.  We have had a great holiday, but its back to work on Monday!!

A quieter day

On Tuesday we did such a difficult walk that yesterday we decided to take it a bit easier.  We started with a cooked breakfast at the Bembridge Bakery.

That was delicious.  Then we went for a walk at Bembridge.  We parked at the Toll Gate cafe and walked on the cliff tops.

This is a lovely walk, but you have to take the views while you can, the hedges were a bit high for Harry.

That's a bit more like it, you can see Culver Cliff, which marks the boundary of Sandown Bay.  It was very sunny.

Back at Bembridge, near the Crab and Lobster pub, you get lovely views of the sea.

Well when I said a quieter day, that didn't include the bit about helping out the coastguard.  We always feel they are worth helping.

Another walk today, in the west of the island.  Its another hot day!!

A long difficult walk

Yesterday was a very hot day and we chose to do one of the hardest walks that we do.  However, Harry was up for it.  We started in the old village at Shanklin and the church.

This is a very old church and we do not know who St Blasius was, I suppose we could look him or her up!  Harry didn't mind sitting on the holly, he doesn't complain like Mini-Kolo.

We walked through the church yard and at the back of the church there is this stone style in a little wood.  That was nice and cool!

On the other side of the stone style there was a gate leading onto Shanklin Down.  We climbed and climbed, sometimes it was so steep we could hardly walk, but we got to the first part of the top.

This was half way up after walking on the very steep walk up a narrow path, Harry decided he needed a rest before going any further.

Eventually we got to the real top after climbing through this field which is a very steep hill.  We had climbed so high that you can only just see the town and sea below.  Phew it was time for a rest.

A few yards from the trig point, that is at the top of the down, there is a style and you can see the valley below.

We looked ahead to where we were going.  The radar station is just in view.

As we walked we came over to Luccombe Down.  The landscape on this down is very different from that on Shanklin Down.

Look at this heather.  It is a little past its best, for this year, but some of it was still quite bright.  Otherwise the down has bracken and gorse with some stunted trees.  The wind must be stronger on that side of the downs.

As we reached the top of the valley, near the radar station, Harry looked down the valley.  There is a village called Wroxall and the ruins of a stately home, Appledurcumbe House, where the Worsleys lived, http://www.appuldurcombe.co.uk/.

We walked across to Wroxall Down, where we could see the village below in the valley.

We climbed down some very steep roads and steps to the seafront at Ventnor.  Harry found this ice cream he needed it by this time.

We walked to Bonchurch, along the seafront.  The tide was high and the waves were crashing on the footpath so we didn't stop for pictures until we got to Bonchurch.  We stopped here and ate our sandwiches looking out over the sea.

We went back a different way, through the wooded landslip that takes you from Bonchurch to Shanklin.  Harry enjoyed climbing here.  It involves a lot of climbing up and down but not as steep as going over the downs.

There is a wishing seat near the end of the landslip, Harry wished his feet didn't hurt quite so much.

We came out of the landslip and back onto Luccombe Down.

On Luccombe Common we found the table of the famous Luccombe Jam Man.  He had obviously sold a lot of jam because the table was nearly empty.  We bought some plum jam.  His jam is always fantastic so it is a treat.

When we left Luccombe Common we came out of the woods.  Harry enjoyed the views.  All that remainded was to walk back into Shanklin, down Luccombe Road, past nice hotels and houses.

It was a challenging walk but we managed it.  Thank you for reading.  Another walk tomorrow.