I
slept like a log, waking shortly after 7am. I clumped and clattered about the
hotel room until "er indoors TM" woke, then we went
downstairs for a rather good brekkie. Our room had been rather good; Mark and Sam
hadn’t had such a good experience. Chatting over a full English you wouldn’t
have thought we’d stayed in the same hotel.
We’d
talked with Mark and Sam about our abject failure at the nearby puzzle cache
yesterday, so (seeing how it was so close)
we went back and this time solved the field puzzle in seconds. And a few
minutes after that saw us with the final prize in hand.
We
then drove the short distance to Portsmouth harbour, parked the cars, and from
there wandered down to the harbour, collecting a few geocaches as we went.
There was one at the harbour’s railway station, and it was there that we met
quite a few other hunters of Tupperware.
A
geo-event had been arranged for today. There is one particular cache which is really
difficult to get to which lies on an island in Portsmouth harbour. You aren’t
allowed on the island; the idea is you get as close as you can via boat and
take a selfie. A few months ago I’d read that a boat was to be chartered, and
did anyone want to buy a ticket? Knowing that tickets would go like hot cakes I
snapped up two, and today we sailed with everyone else who’d got a ticket. There
must have been thirty of us at least. Some people were old friends, some were
people we’d seen here and there, and others were complete strangers. But with a
mutual interest everyone got on famously.
The
sea was remarkably calm. As we sailed we went past HMS Queen Elizabeth II; the
Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carrier. In fact it is the Royal Navy’s biggest
ship ever. It was *huge*. We saw
other warships, and decommissioned fleet auxiliary vessels too.
We
got as close to the island as the ship’s captain would sail, we took loads of
photos, then sailed back to the quay. As we went back the littuns went round
offering sweeties.
It
was at this point that we said goodbye to our friends, and pausing only briefly
to nip to HMS Victory we made our way back to the car. As we were waiting to
validate our car parking ticket we met a poor family with the world’s most
ill-behaved brat. The child was rolling round the floor having a screaming fit
whilst the family let it play up. At the very least I would have dragged it out
of everyone’s way were it my child. But then both of my brats knew that such behaviour
would have got them a firmly slapped arse and so they wouldn’t have been rolling
round screaming in the first place.
I
set the sat-nav for the ferry terminal, and I quickly realised my mistake. I
then set the sat-nav for the nearby ferry terminal (and *not* the one on the Isle of Wight) and within five minutes we
were sailing across the Solent.
I’ve
wanted to go to the Isle of Wight for geo-reasons for some time. On the geocaching
statistics page you can see a map of the UK, and the counties in which you’ve
found caches are coloured. Most of the south of England (and France, Belgium and Greece) appear in shades of green. But the
Isle of Wight has been an annoying white colour on my maps.
Not
any more…
There
is a cache within a couple of hundred yards of the ferry terminal. We found
that, and then followed a route south to Blackgang Chine picking up another
half-dozen on the way. At Blackgang Chine we did a little field geology lesson,
then drove to our hotel in Shanklin.
We
settled in to our room, then took a ten minute stroll down the road into the town.
The hotel staff told us of some good places to eat in the town and we thought
we’d go take pot luck. We liked the look of “Decades” restaurant and thought we’d give it a go. It was
excellent. I had the fish platter and it was excellent. "er indoors TM"
had the steak pie ad struggled to finish it. The home-made cheesecake was
wonderful, and they served ale brewed on the island too. I can thoroughly
recommend the place.
Mind
you other people have slated
the place on TripAdvisor so maybe we were lucky? Again my thoughts come
back to the hotel we were in last night. We had a good experience; Sam and Mark
did not. Hotels and restaurants can be so hit-and-miss.
Suitably
stuffed we wandered on and found a touristy sweetie shop where we got some
pressies for the dog-sitters, and we had a pint in the Village Inn; a rather
good pub which reminded me very much of my late grandmother’s living room.
We
wandered back to the hotel; I thought about a little drinkie, but (call me old-fashioned if you will) I
draw the line at Worthington’s Cream Flow. Instead I plumbed the lap-top into
the wi-fi and sorted out the geo-admin for today’s mission.
I’m
feeling a bit tired (i.e. absolutely
knackered). The mattress seems a bit tough though…
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