Day 1 in Pompey

We arrived in Portsmouth at 10am on friday after a beautiful ferry ride on a sunny morning, the channel was like glass.

Nephew Richard met us and helped us to our hotel before spending most of the Day escorting us around the Navel area of Portsmouth. 1st stop the Mary Rose the pride of Henry VIII, sunk in the harbour with the king watching it go down. It took years to dry it out to the point of being displayed, fascinating museum giving a great insight to the life of a sailor,

Next up is the Victory flag ship of Navy and the ship that Nelson died on in the heat of battle. I have wanted to see this ship since I was a kid. For its time it was a mighty piece of military power. It still flies the ensign as it is still an active and oldest Royal Navy vessel. we then headed over to a WW1 ship. it saw service and had the name of the lucky one, having never lost anyone. the difference between the victory and this was extreme, a solid tin can it felt cold and soulless. our 3rd ship was the "Warrior" a combination or the change over ship, built with timber hull cased with iron, it had masts and steam power. there wasn't a ship afloat that could touch this in it's day

 even its guns were varied, old style like on the victory and the latest rear loading guns. I made the mistake of asking a question and the very knowledgeable Mike then spent 20 minutes giving us the history of the Warrior and indeed anything Navy. it was still worth while. a very historic ship that links the old and new technology.

This is taken from Lord Nelson's cabin at the back of Victory looking out over to the latest Royal Navy aircraft carrier the Queen Elizabeth.
after a spot of lunch we headed back to check in at the hotel and then on to meet Rich, Jo and Winnie for dinner. 

Needles and Castle

For our 2nd day on the isle of wight we have planned to get 3 three things into during the day. The first was to drive for 35 minutes to the Needles.The weather wasn't our friend with a strong wind but we ventured to take the chairlift which was for me a challenge, heights not being my friend. 

We had the chance to check out Alum Bay Glass and watch as they produced some product and gave a running commentary. It was fascinating to watch. 

 Time had come for us to move on to our next port of call. Godshill, we had no idea what to expect. A part from the 7 buses of tourists and a carpark full of cars we found a park and decided lunch was first on the list of things to do. After a wander around the village we went to checkout the Model Village, A rather large copy of Godshill a lot of work had gone into this place.

We really enjoyed our walk and have a load of photo's to play with when I get home.

3rd thing to do today was the Carisbrook Castle. Just up the road from where we were staying. More of a Castle Ruins than a full Castle but had some other building still complete within the Walls. We walked up on the Ramparts around the walls.

Had to try on a couple of hats while we were there, would of been rude not to.

Chainmail umm, really heavy, not sure I would want a whole suit of this stuff.

Whoops almost forgot we got our daily dose of Steps in (71) of them straight up. we love steps they are right up there with pay and display carparks.

Well we made it through the day and our visit to the Isle is coming to an end, up early to get to the ferry with Portsmouth calling.

Destination Isle of Wight

So up & away leaving Honiton after brekky & heading for Lymington. Pretty easy drive taking in the outskirts of Dorchester, cruising through parts of the New Forest quite similar to Exmoor in alot of ways including ponies ! loads of them with the addition of cattle grazing too!

 Got to Lymington with plenty time to peruse the town & lucky that we did as parking was at an absolute premium! managed to make our way to the ferry in plenty of time & took our place in the queue to await boarding. The car ferry was a first for both of us, an enjoyable experience.

A 40 min sail & here we are on the Isle of Wight with enough time to visit Osborne House- Queen Victoria's hideaway. Just beautiful, I can see why she liked it there !! 

Back to our digs for the night for dinner then a good nights sleep, more sightseeing tomorrow !!

The Long Road to Honiton

Well after such a great few days we start our trek towards the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth to catch up with Family. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day, sun shining blue skies and our first port of call is to be Torquay a town I have heard a lot about, it being the English Riviera. O dear, what a disappointment that was. A dirty looking town that seems to need a good tidy up. I think the council needs a good kick up the butt to sort that place out. Whilst walking around the centre of the town we spotted what we though was a tourist land train.

 and decided to take the 40 minutes ride to the sights of the Town. 7 hours later we still aren't sure what we went on. more like a bus and less like a tour we saw little of the town and the driver required a 10 minute break for a smoke, really bizarre.

Holidays are all about experiences and today has been one of those complete with the slightly weird staff at the pub we are staying at. tomorrow will be a better day as we head to the isle of wight.

Gardens to the Sea

We moved on today from Tintagel, heading down to the south coast to Mevagissey. On the way we called into the Lost Gardens of Heligan. They may have been lost but they are no Secret Garden. Thinking a Monday would be a little quieter we were sadly mistaken. we parked way down in the overflow parking and wandered up to the ticket office, after a short Queue we headed into the gardens.

As we wandered through we saw a vast array of garden types , styles, including as the photo's show, man made sculptures. As we headed towards the Jungle area I spied a little friend for Jacqui, it might not be the Boa Constrictor but a one foot snake is a snake.

we were surprised by the amount of NZ plants, obviously they liked ferns etc. the rope bridge was not what I expected but was fun to walk over.

lots of twisting and very springy and a max of 10 people allowed on it at a time. we spent 3 1/2 walking the gardens and it was a lovely way to spent some time to chill, we then headed on to Mevagissey to our hotel. This was the view heading into town from our hotel.

What a stunning day we had to see this beautiful little place, we did however freak out a bit when gilly gps sent us through the shortest way right through the town. this is what it presented us with.

Yep it is a 2 way road with no passing, making it rather interesting to drive through. We did however make it to our hotel and learned of a better way to exit tomorrow.

 we took the chance to get on a speedboat ride taking in the local coastline, a lot of fun.

struggled to get a sharp pic while bouncing about. someone looks happy though. we settles for a slightly quieter time to finish off the day with steve getting some photo time and jacqui getting some shop time,

It's fair to say that we enjoyed today, lots of walking lots to see and lots to enjoy about Mevagissey, we would definitely come back probably adding more days.  

Camelot to Carousels

What a day we have planned today from the Legendary Arthur through to 1900+ Show Rides. We kicked off with a solid Breakfast and then hits the tracks to Merlin's Cave.We picked the right time as very few (3) people were on the trail down to the bay and cave. What a stunning morning the clear blue skies and beautiful warmth of the sun and of course the slightly chilly breeze off the sea. 

we found the carving of Merlin in the rocks and checked out the cave, basically a dark hole with water in the bottom, we certainly didn't feel the force. 

we met a german couple and exchanged cameras for a shot each by the obvious waterfall, and we took it the morning view before heading up the hill to check out the remains, now we knew there were steps lots of steps but the final push was a workout, 65 degrees and deep steps for Jacqui.

after attempting to include Anne & Bruce on our tour with a facetime date and failing we headed back to the booking office that was now open to take in the island and castle. More and more steps followed before we reach the sculpture. 

a pretty amazing sculpture at that. after 3 1/2 hours of climbing hills and steps we finally made our way back to our hotel, cheating the last 400mtrs with a landrover ride to the top,

Morning complete and a worthy 1/2 hour rest before we head off to Dingles. Jacqui discovered dingles online during our pre-tour planning and it seemed to be a good place to have a look at. we knew this was going to be very good or very bad. with the 40 min drive we arrived in a field, umm not what I expected. But I have to say this has been a memorable highlight in our trip. it started with the Museum of Amusements, all the old games from the past found at travelling shows or in NZ the winter / summer shows. 

There is a complete History of how and when travelling shows came about, items in the museum have all been gifted by travelling showmen to help keep the memory alive, there are buses, caravans trucks, complete backdrops, it was truly a great place to see. Once we got away from the 2p slots we headed over to the active building. 

A building with basically a complete show inside.  

you can probably tell by the increase in photo's that we really enjoyed Dingles. if you get the chance check it out and if you wait a bit longer they are doubling the size of the active building as they have a lot more in storage.

tomorrow we head to the lost gardens and finish in Mevagissey.

Dropping into Lynmouth

The day has come where we must farewell Kathleen & David our hosts for the past 3 days, they have a great knowledge of the area they live in and that showed when they gave us the grand tour of Exmoor. Today our plan is to travel to Tintagel to catch up with Arthur in his Camelot digs. We managed to get through to Minehead and onto Porlock where we stopped for a leg stretch and a few pics. 

Our next stop is Lynmouth or Lynton depending on the up or down.

the reason for our visit is the famous water lift from lynton up top to lynmouth down at the coast. 

check out Jacqui's video of our downhill leg click  Watelift

Lynmouth Harbour.

We really enjoyed our couple of hours checking out both towns before heading on. we were supposed to be going hovercrafting and we are gutted it didn't happen, the company putting it on didn't bother to reply to our email so we push on to Boscastle and what a delight that was. The Witchcraft Museum was to be honest a lttle unsettling. the amount of stuff on display was surprising.

 For a town that was nearly written off the face of the planet when massive floods came through they have done an amazing job of repairing rebuilding it.

We finished off our day checking into the Avalon hotel in Tintagel looking forward to an eventfull tomorrow