Isle of Wight holiday

12-19 October 2013

It's been a little while since we last visited the Isle of Wight. We rented a cottage just south of Totland on the western end of the island. Stephen spent three of our six days walking the island's coastal path.

The first evening, we walked up Tennyson Down. In the direction of the setting sun is West High Down, just hiding The Needles

A bit closer and the views more clearly extend over the sea to the Purbeck Hills 30-40 kilometres away beyond Swanage.

To the north, the view is across Totland Bay and to Hurst Castle and its lighthouse with the New Forest beyond

East the view is across Freshwater Bay and Compton Bay as far as St Catherine's Point at the southern end of the island

Our four dogs with the cliffs of Compton Bay behind them and the various Downs of the southern part of the island.

George and the view to Hurst Castle

Next morning during a walk along the front at Totland. We had lunch at a café on the front - the weather wasn't quite up to Cypriot standards but it was nice to have the waves breaking just outside the window.

Later in the week, a very damp day saw a visit to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Here the locomotive is running round at Smallbrook Junction ready to pull our train back towards Havenstreet station

A marked improvement in the weather and we took advantage for a visit to the delightful model village at Godshill. This isn't the real entrance - this is the entrance to the model village within the model village.

One of the things that always tickles us is that because part of the attraction is a model of the village within which it sits, the model village contains a model village, which contains a model village. On the right (just behind a tree) you can see the tower of the real church. Centre-right, next to the hot air balloon, is the model of the church. Then there is the model of the model.

Here's a close-up of the model of the model. And bottom left is the model of the model of the model, with just visible the model of the model of the model of the model.

The trains are an added attraction - here the model diverges from reality (not only in the railway layout but in the carriage of dinosaurs here) but is none the less enjoyable for that

Southern Railway carriages similar to those on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway

Your photographer gets low down to take this picture of the entrance to another church

Only the over-sized leaves really give the game away

Blackgang Chine

See also Stephen's three-day walk on the Isle of Wight Coast Path during our week on the island.