We had a hard time pitching the tent because the ground was so hard and dry as we've not had rain for weeks, its been very hot and the ground and grass is parched. We broke or bent a lot of tent pegs trying to get the tent up and luckily the onsite shop sells good quality tent pegs, better than the ones we had. After a lot of "naughty words" being said by hubby and after using water to wet the ground where we needed to hammer the pegs in we finally got the tent up and settled in. Not a bad view at all. The campsite is Grange Farm, Brighstone Bay, and if you click to their website you will see a picture down the right hand side, an aerial shot of the campsite. Note the white static holiday homes that look closest to the water, we were just above them.
The photos above show the view from the tent looking towards the sea. I went up the bench at the end and took these others photos later on, during sunset. The top one is looking down to the sea slightly to the right, then looking down slightly to the coastline to the left and towards the South of the Island and see how the static holiday homes are below us and finally, looking along the coastline to the right towards the north of the Island.
During our holiday we visited:
Shanklin Coastal Path: a nice walk along the quiet Coastal Path which sits above the sheer drop to the sea on the left and the houses on the right. Some of the houses are beautiful but I dread to think how much they would cost because of their size, location and views. We would need to win the Lottery!
Shanklin Chine: this is basically a deep narrow ravine with water running down to the sea which has been turned into a garden-tourist attraction. You can read all about Shanklin Chine here.
Alum Bay: this is famous for its natural multi-coloured sands and you have to be careful in case of rock fall. The sand is collected and sold from the natural rock falls, it is not mined, and so not all colours are available at all times. They also make their world renowned Alum Bay Glass.
The Needles and the Old Battery: The Needles are the distinctive rocks and the Old Battery is the old Military Defence Base protecting mainland England from attacks along the south coast. We didn't have the time nor the energy to also visit the New Battery. You can find out more about these two sites here.
Godshill Model Village: This is a model village of Godshill and surrounding area, including Shanklin Chine. The hubby and the kids loved this. Within the model village there is a model of the model village complete with tourists and within that a model of the model village and within that a model of the model village and so on. This is the photo top right. Here is the link to the website.
Godshill Village: This is itself a tourist attraction but my family wouldn't stop and pose for photos so I apologise for the backs of their heads.
The journey home on the Friday was pretty horrendous, lots and lots of traffic and it was hot, very hot and it took us at least 2 hours more to get home than it did to get to our holiday. Still lots of things on the Island that we didn't do, lots of things to see and do on the North East part of the Island so I think we will be going back to the Isle of Wight next year but finding a campsite up on the North East side as Grange Farm is lovely, very nice and quiet with their 10pm-7am quiet rule (no music/noise/shouting allowed during those times) but it is quite remote so if you fancy getting a take away, like fish and chips, it is literally about 9 miles to the nearest place.
I took lots of photos and a lot of photos of rocks, plants, bugs etc but I don't want to bore you to tears with those.
Thanks for sharing in detail.
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