Camping in the Isle of Wight, again! Part 1.

We just got back from camping in the Isle of Wight.  After much searching for somewhere on the other side of the Island that looked nice and could take a tent the size of ours and a dog we gave up and went to the same site as last year but this year we are earlier than last year.  Ermmmm, yeah, what can I say.  Weather: shite.  Mood: shite.  Had a good time: a few highlights but not really.  Coming back here next year: NO!

The camp site is basically on the top of the cliff right next to the coast on the western side of the Island so any wind is blowing in from the direction of the North Atlantic Ocean, across the Celtic Sea and along the English Channel.  Putting the tent up, ha ha ha, yeah, that was fun, not , in gale force winds but we had to do it when we arrived as the forecast was for it get a little worse and not improve until at least the next day.  We struggled and fought in the wind and we did manage to get the tent up but not as we'd have liked.  It wasn't sat properly on the footprint and it wasn't up quite right, nothing was aligning, it was securely tethered to the ground but was slightly askew and with the wind we managed to rip the skirting at the back, luckily not the main tent so we were very lucky there.

First night was really fun.  Not only was the wind and rain keeping me awake but I was uncomfortable and then suddenly aware that my air bed was completely devoid of air and I was lying on the hard lumpy ground of the field and I could feel this through the footprint, the inbuilt groundsheet of the tent, the deflated air bed and my sleeping bag.  Hubby very kindly gave me his air bed and he went and slept on one of our blow up arm chairs in the main tent area. Despite the weather, we did manage to get out and about a bit when it blow over for a bit and the first port of call was to see the animals on the farm we were staying on. 

The cocks were all strutting their stuff, there are quite a few of them but it was the guy in the bottom two photos that made me laugh.  There he was puffing himself up on the top of a fence post and as I took the first photo he looked at me and squawked at me and being the daft cow that I am I spoke to him and said "What's the matter, didn't I get your best side?" So he turned to face the opposite way and posed for me.

On Tuesday we went to Ryde to have a walk round and whilst there a hovercraft came in, that was interesting, wet and sandy!  Needless to say that my Canon camera did not come out all day and I relied on my phone for the pictures.

We went to Shanklin and Godshill but it wasn't as nice as last year, it was too wet and miserable to enjoy it properly and by Wednesday evening I was so miserable I had had enough and wanted to come home.  Thankfully we didn't do that because the day after we had some decent weather and was able to get out and about properly.  See Part 2.