Entries tagged "Isle of Wight"
2012-06-11
Each year we travel with 3 other families to the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight for some traditional British camping.
This is definitely not 'glamping'. Neither is it wild camping. It is pitching a tent in a farmer's field, releasing the kids to terrorise the hills and each other and then knuckling down to some serious rain-dodging and sleep deprivation.
This year appeared to be offering something very similar to previous years, but we were in for a little surprise. A little storm, in fact, that crept well east of where it was supposed to…
2011-12-14
I was interviewed by Susan Gray on behalf of the Ramblers yesterday. We chatted over tea, blasts of icy December air and then some more tea. Did you know that the amount of tea walkers drink is inversely-proportional to the number of days we are from the winter solstice?
We only went for a short walk, it was more of an indoor interview than a walking one, but we were outdoors just long enough to appreciate the difference a couple of hundred feet of altitude can make. In the valleys it was far from balmy, but it…
2010-06-04
Back from a short family camping trip to the Isle of Wight, where I stumbled across this wonderful sign on the side of an old lifeboat station house.In case it is not legible in the picture, the words read as follows:When full or newYou see the Moon,The tides far out in the afternoon.But when the Moon'sAt either quarter,At tea the beachIs underwater.Six hours the waterebbs away,An hour laterEvery day.Get down to the beachAs soon as you canTime and TideWait for no man.------How divine is that?
2009-11-30
I had hoped to sail to the Isle of Wight on Saturday with some old friends. We slipped Chichester marina at eight in the morning in my Contessa 32, fully aware that the forecast was a bit spicy. The sense of foreboding increased slightly when the Chichester marina lock-keeper called down to me, 'Have you seen the forecast?' I said 'Yes. Force 6 gusting 9.' He replied, 'OK, well when the lock gates open you will need to gun the engine full throttle and hold your line otherwise you will be blown straight onto the piles.' I thanked…
2009-06-04
In this photo that I took ten days ago of Totland Bay Pier on the Isle of Wight, there is a lot of blue. We become used to thinking of the sky and sea as blue, but in this picture it is easy to see how varied the colours can be. There is gradual shift from blue to off-white in the sky. In the sea there are three quite distinct bands, dark blue of deeper water, green-blue of shallow water and then light brown as the beach itself becomes visible through the water. There are also two other darker…
