26/5/24 To Isle of Wight

 

     Time for a trip , Isla has a mid term break , so we load up the car and head to Southampton , where we'll catch the car ferry over to The Isle of Wight . This is normal traffic for the A3 to Southampton , probably assisted with mid term break traffic as well .

 After an hour & a half driving we arrived at Southampton and checked in to the dock area . 20 mins later we board the ferry and we commence our 45min journey across to The Isle of Wight . The old dock is just rotting away , gradually falling into the water .

    There were a couple of cruise boats in , they sail in & out of here regularly during the season . The pink ship is a container ship that you can't miss .

    Varied architecture in these dockside buildings .

    It was a pleasant cruise over to the Isle , with many sailing boats out on Sunday afternoon . They had a brisk wind to sail with - it was too brisk to stay outside and enjoy the view though , the windchill was horrendous !!

    An interesting looking boat approached , it carries wind turbine blades from the manufacturing plant on the Isle - it's name - Bladerunner 2 !!

    Arriving at East Cowes , it didn't take long to get the 100 or so cars , trucks & vans off . And so here we are , all of us on a new island , trying to get to our lodgings , down very narrow lanes , more hedges , and the odd crazy driver . You need to concentrate on your surroundings , so you can nip off into some of the slightly wider sections to let oncoming vehicles past - those vehicles include double decker buses , tractors & trailers , and the odd semi trailer thrown into the mix .

    With all the hedges around , views from the car out onto the surrounding fields are scarce , but we found this one .

    Plenty of crops are grown here , wheat , barley , corn etc - probably a reason why it was a prized area of land over the generations , and was fought over many times by different invaders .

    Here is what we call a park home back home . It was well furnished with electric heating , gas cooking and was very comfortable . It also had 2 bedrooms with 2 bathrooms and walk in robes , and a deck outside . Kitchen was well equipped and we cooked each night , there were books & board games as well .

     After getting settled we headed in to do some shopping at Tesco - WOW - this supermarket was the size of a Bunnings store , and had a similar amount of everything . All the grocery goods were there , clothes , electrical goods toys and heaps more we didn't even see . We went to the beer aisle , and I had to laugh - they were selling Fosters beer - i haven't seen a can or carton of Fosters for years & years , not sure if it's even sold in Australia any more .

    

 Here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1y7KiR11__eqqZ67eEwXwIVBNb0lkyR0&usp=sharing