This weekend I had another amazing adventure! We had a 3 day weekend and I didn't want to sit at home doing nothing so I booked a holiday! Of course you did, I hear you say! I decided on the Isle of Wight so I booked a car, ferries and an AirBnb.
Friday night I collected my car from the airport after school. Brand spanking new Citroen C3 with 6 miles on the dial. Woot! 4am Saturday morning I left home and drove to Portsmouth to catch the 7am ferry. I paid for priority boarding so I was first one the ferry, parked right at the front and first off at the other end. The trip is only 45mins so pretty quick. Isle of Wight is a tiny island off the south coast of England. It is only 36km across and 22km from top to bottom. It takes less than an hour to drive across it. It is known for dinosaurs, smugglers, pirates and tomatoes.
After arriving I headed straight to the other side to visit The Needles. These are 3 chalk pillars just off the coast and a lighthouse. As they didn't open until 10am I went for a walk along the cliff top to get a view of the ocean. After that I went back and took the stairs to the beach. It is a pebble beach not a sand beach. From there you can take a fast or slow boat cruise past The Needles. I took the fast boat and it was great to see the pillars and cliffs up close. I took the chair lift back up the cliff so I didn't have to walk up all those stairs!
Next up I headed to the West Wight Alpaca and Llama Farm. Once you pay you are free to wander the farm and visit all the animals. You can also purchase a cup of food for them. I chose the llama/alpaca food. They have so many animals! They have goats, sheep, pigs, miniature donkeys, llamas and alpacas. They know the sound of the food cups so when you shake them, the llamas all come running! It is like ringing a dinner bell! Some of them hd been shaved of their winter coats and others still had their fur. They are super cute and their fur is so soft. I can definitely see why people love clothing made from llama/alpaca wool. I even got to see how they encourage male llamas to breed with female llamas.
Next up was Carisbrooke Castle. Indoor places are still closed so it is only the grounds you can visit. It is a smaller castle but still pretty cool. They also have some resident donkeys you can visit.
Next I went to The Garlic Farm Shop. Garlic is my favourite food additive and I put it in almost all my savoury dishes. Ain't no vampires in my house! They have so many garlic products you can buy, including plants, bulbs and sauces. They also have black garlic which is specially aged garlic which has a sweeter flavour. I got some garlic jam, roast garlic mayo and black garlic puree and I can't wait to taste them all!
After checking in to my AirBnb I headed down to Shanklin for dinner and to visit Shanklin Chine. I ended up getting fish & chips (trying to get some more omegas in my body) and it was the biggest piece of fish ever. Only £5.50 (about $8) and it would have been about 400g! In the Isle of Wight, chine means a narrow ravine that has water flowing to the sea. Shanklin Chine is the most popular and is right in the town. In daylight it is a gorgeous lush green tropical feeling place. Waterfalls, birds, ferns, fish. Amazing. They have some bird enclosures at one end which I wasn't a fan of, but the wild birds were nice. I also saw a red squirrel running around. The tickets at the moment give you 7 days unlimited access and on Friday & Saturday nights they have a night illuminations display. I went back when it got darker and the lights make it look amazing. Highly recommend a visit to Shanklin Chine if you visit the Isle of Wight.
Sunday I had a full day to explore. After a bit of a sleep in I decided to head to Osborne House as my first stop. This place was a royal residence for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was built in 3 stages in the mid 1800's. The exterior of the building is absolutely stunning and exactly my style of building. The gardens out the back were formal and exquisite. I fell completely in love with Osborne House. There is a walled garden which houses a huge kitchen garden. They have apples, pears, apricots, plums, figs, cherries, lemons and more all trellised on the walls with apples and pears forming trellised walkways dividing the gardens as well. There are some huge rhubarb and rosemary plants, a few asparagus plants with huge asparagus stalks ready to eat and so many other things. Osborne House is so gorgeous I am ready to move in right now!
Next I headed across to Quarr Abbey. It was very busy and the queue to enter the cafe/farm shop was huge so I didn't stay long. They have a lot of pigs you can feed and they had some super cute little piglets.
By now my belly was grumbling so it was time for
lunch at the Briddlesford Dairy Farm. I had some crumbed haloumi
sticks, made fresh on the farm from their own cows. It was delicious and
the best haloumi I have ever had. They also had a small selection of the special Isle of Wight tomatoes produced by The Tomato Stall. I was so excited to try them so I bought some of each!
I went for a walk along the beach after lunch down at Compton Beach. It was also very busy, considering it was cold and windy. It is one of the best places to find fossils on the island too but not sure where as it is mostly clay and sand with few rocks. I also passed a gorgeous rapeseed field so had to stop & take photos like everyone else!
Lucky last for my day was a stop at the Isle of
Wight Donkey Sanctuary. They rescue abandoned and mistreated donkeys and
give them a forever home on their farm. They have so many! They do
enjoy a pat and are quite friendly. They also have some Shetland Ponies.
The donkeys are so cute and some of them are quite mischievous.
After an early night and super early morning, I got up and went to the other side of the island to catch the other ferry to the mainland. From there I headed to Ivy Wood in the New Forest. I had read that New Forest is amazing and beautiful, and Ivy Wood is one of the best spots to see bluebells. I knew it was a bit late in the season but I thought I would try anyway. Turns out Ivy Wood is gorgeous and definitely worth a visit and walk around. There was a herd of semi-friendly cows in there too. I think they must have eaten all the bluebells though as there were hardly any left.
Last up for the day was a long drive to Lyme Regis, which is on the Jurassic Coast. This is one of the best areas to go fossil hunting and even has a beach called Ammonite Footpath, owing to the huge numbers of ammonite fossils that have been found there. It was extremely windy so it wasn't great weather. I spent about 1.5hrs hunting on the beach for some fossils. Found quite a few large ones but I really wanted a small one to take home. I didn't find one and my hands were frozen so I went hunting for food instead. I found a popular food truck and got some calamari and chips and ate them in the car (like a lot of people, so we didn't get a side order of sand!).
Finally it was time to head back to London and drop the car off. It was very busy most of the way and took longer than expected. By the time I got back to the airport it was very wet! It was certainly an awesome weekend and I recommend a visit to the Isle of Wight!