The Isle of Wight

John and I recently spent a long weekend exploring the Isle of Wight.  It is an easy trip by car.  From Oxford to the island it is only 100 miles.  We took the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth.  

The first place we went was the multi-colored sand cliffs at Alum Bay. 

There is an old chairlift that goes from the beach to the top of the cliffs.  We opted to walk along to the top of the cliffs instead.

The skyscapes over the ocean were lovely.

We walked around the point to see the Needles,  a row of three stacks of chalk  that rise out of the sea off the western point of the island. The formation takes its name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's Wife that collapsed in a storm in 1764. The remaining rocks are not at all needle-like, but the name has stuck. During Queen Victoria's reign, in 1897, the world's first radio station was set up by Marconi, at the Needles Battery on the tip of these cliffs.

We were lucky with this weather and had crisp, sunny, late fall weather. 

This is St Helens Beach where a church of some sort has stood since 1080.  In 1720 a great wave destroyed the old church.  However, the tower still stands to this day, the seaward side is painted as a sea mark.

Bathing houses at St. Helens

John laughs at me because I have collected so many beautiful rocks since we have moved to the U.K.  On a beach like this one, I can spend hours looking for lovely stones. 

The island is part of what is known as the Jurassic coast, the southern coast of England.  It is one of the most important areas in Europe for dinosaur fossils. I did find some beautiful stones.  I didn't find any fossils.

The Isle of Wight has a Coastal Footpath goes most of the way around the island.  My parents walked the path years ago.  John and I walked bit and pieces of it.  

There is beautiful scenery nearly all the way with a lot of different terrain - cliff tops, marshland, river estuaries, beach. Its like walking Britain in miniature. 

This is part of the coastal path near St. Catherines Down.

We came upon this neolithic stone while walking the Mottistone Walk in Chillerton Down.  The middle of the island has beautiful downland, with farmed and wooded valleys hidden away.  I liked it every bit as much as the coastal areas.

One thing I love about the U.K. is that even as winter is fast approaching parts of the land stay green.  There is always a bit of green, growth, and the promise of spring, even in the bleakest winter. 

Queen Victoria  made Osborne House on the Isle of Wight her summer home for many years and, as a result, it became a major holiday resort for fashionable Victorians including Lord Tennyson, Julie Margaret Cameron, Charles Dickens  (who wrote much of David Copperfield there) as well as various members of European royalty.

Tennyson Down is probably one of the most popular places to walk on the Island. It is named after the poet Lord Tennyson who lived at nearby Farringford House for nearly 40 years. The poet used to walk on the down almost every day, saying that the air was worth 'sixpence a pint'. At the top of the Down  stands a huge granite cross commemorating the life of the poet. 

I'm glad we can to the isle off season.  It was a peaceful, quiet, lovely and fascinating get-away. I'm not sure I would like the island so much when it is swarming with summer tourists and vacationers.  And I don't think I'll be back during the big Isle of Wight music festival.  I liked seeing the isle during it's quiet season with unspoiled and empty beaches and solitary walking trails.