Quick! It's Spring (for now at least)...

We took advantage of the sunshine, bundled two children into the car and set off for the National Trust car park on the downs above Brighstone. Once there we toddled off down Strawberry Lane, passing the remains of a lime kiln on our right and admiring primroses on our left. After a  while we found a footpath and headed across the heath to the Longstone; this is a 6000 year old pair of monoliths which were once part of a neolithic burial mound. I was told, when at primary school, that the one lying down was an altar where human sacrifices took place. Clearly wrong!  We took a detour to the top of a nearby hill, where there were also earthworks, to take advantage of a spectacular view along the west coast of the Island; we could see from the cliffs of Tennyson Down almost to St Catherine's Point. Wonderful.  We then headed inland, up the downs and eventually into Brighstone Forest where the kids romped among the trees (and found a bivouac made of big sticks), got stuck in brambles, and generally had a wonderful time whooping and exploring.  The adults nattered and followed the path back to the car park. Flapjacks and hot chocolate were then consumed and we headed back towards home, having a wee detour to Winkle Street on the way. Very pretty.

Route:  http://gb.mapometer.com/account
Distance:  3.75 miles

Snow Day!

Woke up on Friday morning to find the town had been sprinkled with a layer of snow. Hurray! Shortly afterwards I found out that school was closed, so my daughter and I wolfed a bacon sandwich down (well, it was snowing! Energy needed....), donned scarves, hats, gloves, boots and warm coats and ventured outside.  There were few people about apart from a few hardy commuters so we strolled along the High Street pelting each other with snowballs and headed for the seafront.  Here, the jetties and beach were transformed by snow and looked beautiful.  We didn't stay out long, just enough to enjoy the snow before it got trampled to slush and to admire the scenery.  When we got home it was time for hot chocolate and radiator hugging.  My daughter then went out for the rest of the day, building snowmen with friends, having snowball fights and sledging, making the most of the weather before the inevitable thaw.

Wet Winter Walks

As the weather has been so awful this winter we haven't wanted to take the kids on country walks where their boots are likely to get sucked off and we'd all get cold and wet.  Instead, we have been walking along the promenades of Cowes and Ryde.  

On Boxing Day I joined up with a different friend, left my child with her Granny, and set off into the cold and rain and headed to Gurnard. The wind howled and the rain lashed, but we eventually arrived at the door of The Woodvale hotel; we leapt inside and slurped coffee until we felt warmer and drier. We reluctantly left a while later, and headed back into the rainstorm.  Luckily, the rain didn't last too long and the wind was behind us so it didn't take too long to get back to Cowes.  Christmas cake and hot tea awaited us!

Between Boxing Day and New Year the usual crew headed for Puckpool Park on the outskirts of Ryde. I'd never been here before and was amazed to see the remains of a Victorian Battery - lots of gun emplacements. We walked across the top of some fortifications then joined the coastal path and strolled towards Appley Beach, avoiding splashes from large waves.  The weather was cold and damp, but not raining for once.  We headed for Appley Tower, a Victorian folly on the seafront, and discovered it was open.  As we hadn't been before we assumed it was just a tower and we could have a look around.  However, the one room open contained a shop selling crystals and ammonites. As we had three children with us who love these things, we failed to escape without buying something. Ah well, I should learn to say 'No' more firmly!  Afterwards the kids played on the beach while the adults sat on the sea wall and got cold bottoms, then we walked back to Puckpool, played in the playground for a bit then went home.

On New Year's Day we had a family walk from the top of Cowes along the seafront to Gurnard and back.  It was a cold day with a blustery wind, but the sun was shining most of the time. More tea and cake when we got home!

Nunwell Loop

Well, we woke up to a gorgeous sunny November day so decided to toddle off on another hike after lunch.  We drove to Brading Down viewpoint carpark, which overlooks Brading Roman Villa, Sandown Bay and Knighton.  Absolutely stunning views across the southern Isle of Wight today too.  The English Channel was as flat as a mill pond, and as blue as the Mediterranean in the autumn sunlight.

We walked up the carpark in search of a signpost, found it, crossed the busy Brading road and headed into a field and towards the woods.  We passed the Devil's Punchbowl barrow on our left (which the kids were not even vaguely interested in), and headed through a gate into Kelly's Copse.  This is a lovely Beech woodland, and being autumn the paths were covered in coppery-gold beech leaves. Which hid the mud.  The woodland led onto pasture and we followed the path round the base of a hill (the kids ran up it. And down it. And round it.). The hill was covered in horizontal ridges. I'm not sure if this is due to ancient farming techniques or simply gravity - must do some research! The hill was also covered in cobwebs to the delight of the older children and the horror of the youngest.  The path led uphill until it reached the Brading Road.  We followed this until we came to the turning for Eaglehead Copse.

Eaglehead Copse is another pleasant piece of woodland, managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.  There were many stands of Hazel which appeared to be coppiced regularly, many piles of dead twigs and logs to encourage invertebrates and small mammals, reptiles and amphibians and the promise of a sparrowhawk if we were lucky (we weren't, but saw the remains of a kill).  Following the side of the copse was a narrow field containing some rather beautiful cattle.  

Now, we came to the end of the copse and I managed to get us lost (surprise!).  At least, I thought I knew where we were and issued the command to follow the edge of the field, cross over the next two fields and we'd be in a lane.  Hmmm.  Got across the first field and found route blocked by barbed wire fence. Not to be deterred we found a gate a little further up and entered the next field.  It was a tad muddy.  My daughter's boot was sucked off her foot and I had to spend a minute up to my elbow in mud and cow-poo retrieving the boot from the mire. Lovely.  At this point the farmer stuck his head over a gate and asked if we were lost. We said Nononono, just took a wrong turning and will be out of his field very soon. I bet he was laughing at the inept townies attempting to tiptoe across his field!

Anyway, we got to the lane, followed it to the turning for Nunwell House, and headed back into Kelly's Copse and back to the car.  We saw three riders on the way - two girls on ponies, one on a Shetland that was rather small for her. Very nice!  We finished by removing boots and soggy socks and having a hot chocolate in the carpark overlooking the valley below.

Distance: 3.5 miles
Route:  http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_2506656.html

Shorter Shalfleet - Newbridge Loop

We decided to take the kids on a half-term stomp across the fields, so headed for Shalfleet. We left the car in Mill Lane, then headed past the pub, across the road and past the church. We soon took a wrong turning  (surprise!) but a helpful local pointed us in the right direction - follow the muddy footpath, not the paved one. OK, straightforward from there on, across fields where we were mostly ankle deep in mud. One field had three hairy pigs in, to the horror of the youngest child, but they completely ignored us. The next field had a sign declaring 'Bull in Field' so we tiptoed across, all slightly scared this time. The bull was not existent, thankfully.  This field led to a flooded and exceedingly muddy farm track which resulted in us teetering along a very muddy verge  attempting not to fall in the water - exciting!

We walked through several more fields before coming upon Newbridge; from here we followed Clay Lane until we joined another footpath. And went wrong. I followed what I thought was a short-cut, but ended up walking through the lovely Chessell Copse and meeting Doddpitts Lane further down than I anticipated. Never mind, a brisk walk brought us to the end of the lane, past the interesting looking Doddpitts House, and the footpath back to Shalfleet, where, after some more mud, we got back to the car.

Distance: 4.8 miles

Route:  http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_2452856.html

Shalfleet - Newbridge Loop

We spent a rather wet weekend at Corf Camp with the Scouts again, playing in the creek and learning how to do campfire cooking.  Tom's camp doughnuts are amazing! Three slices of white bread, two spread with strawberry jam, sandwiched together, quartered,dunked in batter mix, fried then rolled in sugar. Yummy! Chocolate bananas were also scrumptious, and potatoes baked with an egg inside were interesting. Saturday evening brought a campfire, with singing and jokes. All good fun.  

On Sunday the weather cleared, so we went for a stroll (haha). We headed out of Corf and turned left to follow the road to Newtown. Opposite this turning is a footpath that heads for Five Houses so we followed this beside the wheatfields and copses, crossing the grassed over railway line, until we reached the main road.  We walked along the verge for a while then turned down the lane that to the hamlet of Five Houses, passing the occasional car and cyclist.  We spotted a buzzard swooping over the road at one point, which was quite exciting for me at least.  The eleven year old was rather blase about it!  The road turned sharp right eventually and we headed for Newbridge in search of a shop as we'd left without any provisions.  Sadly there wasn't one so we slogged through the village and took a rarely used (by the look of it) footpath that led Warlands Lane in Shalfleet.  Where the village shop was also shut. Ah well, we went to the pub instead!

We stopped at the New Inn, Shalfleet for a thirst-quenching beer and lemonade respectively, then forced ourselves up the hill to the Deli where we bought Calbourne Classics Honeycomb Icecream, then sat on the verge and watched all the scooters go by (scooter rally on the Island this weekend). When we were refreshed we ambled back along the lane to Corf and joined in with the rest of the activities.  The adults were required to attend the Scout group AGM (and to eat scones and cream and to drink Pimms - hard life!), then the kids went and flung themselves back in the creek.

In the evening there was a barn dance and buffet, with the music provided by Reel Tyme Ceilidh Band.  Great fun and a lovely way to round off what had been a superb, muddy weekend under canvas.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_2252723.html
Distance: 6.2 miles

Camping

Well, we spent a fantastic weekend camping with the Scouts at Corf Camp, Isle of Wight and managed to bypass all Jubilee celebrations! Hurrah!  The scouts slept in old-fashioned canvas patrol tents, which took me straight back to my days in the Girl Guides. Much as I love those tents, I was glad to be sleeping in a modern, dry pod-tent with an inflatable mattress and a bit of privacy.

On Friday night we had a campfire and ate jacket potatoes, toasted marshmallows and chocolate biscuits and drank hot chocolate. Everyone was asleep by midnight, despite the constant noise of owls in the nearby trees. However, the girls tent woke up at 4.30am and started chattering loudly as they didn't realise the time.  Needless to say, the leaders were not amused, and peace and quiet quickly resumed.

On Saturday we all woke at 7am (I just love mornings...), had a fried breakfast and cleared away, then the scouts had activities; they tried their hands at archery and air rifle shooting, and then had a quiz. They came back to camp and had lunch, and then in the afternoon they split into groups and attempted to build a raft out of large plastic barrels, pioneering poles and assorted bits of rope.  One group didn't work well together so their attempt was abandoned, and the other raft had to be reconstructed on Sunday morning.  For the rest of the afternoon the scouts got to play around the site and have a go at making camp gadgets using sticks and square lashing.  It rained in the evening so we all sat in the mess tent and drank cocoa and played games. 

Sunday morning dawned, a raft was rebuilt, dragged on a trolley to Corf Lake (part of Newtown Creek) and plonked, with some trepidation, into the water.  It floated. Phew! All other scout troops present at the camp had also built at least one raft, so a race schedule was drawn up and racing began.  The first raft in the water fell apart quickly, but most others were fine.  Our first team's race went well, with our team taking the lead and keeping it. However, our second team had a slight mishap at the start; the leader tried pushing the raft to get it into the best position and it capsized with everyone aboard falling in the water! Hilarious! They reboarded and paddled off to the finish line, where they capsized again, this time with no help at all!  We won both our races, but as the races were timed we didn't make it into the top three overall. Never mind.

For the remainder of Sunday morning, scouts built a Sedan chair, and spent part of Sunday afternoon racing it round an obstacle course against other troops.  Again, we didn't win but it was good fun.  On Sunday evening there was a big campfire for all the Scout troops with singing and sketches.  Sadly it poured with rain so everyone went to the undercover area instead and carried on.

On Monday morning we let the Scouts lie in until 7.30am (kind!), then showed them how to light a fire in a collapsible barbecue using cotton wool, sticks and a flint & steel (sparky); they then had to cook their own breakfast once they had got a fire going.  Breakfast was beans and sausages and toasted muffins - very nice too!  Following this, we went to the closing ceremony, were awarded a silver for camp standards, came back and packed up the camp. Then we went home, knackered, filthy, but smiling.  A great weekend!