Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 3

After Newport, we head off to the village where Big John grew up and where his Dad was village bobby. There are tales of chipped teeth, broken legs and selling flowers to tourists who arrived by the coachload to be conned by the copper's offspring and his mates. I can't remember the name of the village, but if you want to remind me there is always the comments button, below.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 3

A quick stop in Newport to have a look at the Chavs. Thankfully we were only there long enough for Tigger to leave her sunglasses in the toilet of the pub where she impressed us all with her Janet Street Porter impression.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 3

Trekking across the middle of the Island from Freshwater arriving in East Cowes, we found the tide out and the fantastic sun (something for which the Island is not commonly known) baking the mud and producing a pungent aroma that put me in mind of Pompey, and in particular Grotport. I put these nasty thought from my mind and we started off for the Chain Ferry (or Floating Bridge as Puppa used to call it) and the heady mixture of beer and upper class tossers that is Cowes itself.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

We popped into Yarmouth for the evening meal - although it was very busy we were able to find the only available cab in Freshwater - A stretch Merc limo. None of this Lincoln Towncar or Hummer crap, mind you - a proper bonefide, probably bombproof German motor which comfortably seated 7 passengers. Anyway, Yarmouth had a French Market and lots of entertainment - it was the Old Gaffers Festival! Rather apt, don't you think Big John? :P

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

That's the only bit of Tennyson I know. Or rather the only line I could rememver - "Ring'd with the azure world, he stands" that I fleshed out using Google. The cross in the photos is in memory of Tennyson... and the sea is kind of azure, so it's nearly apt. Apart from Eagles being conspicuos by thier abscence from the photos.

Although, Big D does have an air of Don Henley about him.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

From the bay at Freshwater, we strike out purposefully for the Downs - Big John explains that the chalk ridge we are walking up is the same one that makes up the white cliffs of Dover in the east and the Bournemouth in the west.

The view is striking and on such a clear beautiful day, you can see the new Spinnaker Tower in Pompey, Sway Tower (tradition has it that if you can see Sway Tower from the Downs, it's going to rain, and if you can't see it, it is raining) and Bournemouth. It puts one in mind of those lines by Brooke;


If I should die, think only this of me:
That there is some corner of a foreign field,
That is forever England.

If I die abroad - then I wouldn't mind it being this slab of England that is planted in that foreign field. Terribly trite I'm afraid, but we only learned war poetry or romantic poetry at school and I was smoking behind the biksheds while Mr Kirby wittered on about that fag Byron.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

It's hot. There is a crystal clear sea. It's not Jamaca. It's not Barbados. It's Freshwater. That is salty. Because it's made of the sea. It's lovely here!

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 2

It's Saturday and time to get the paper so we get our free World Cup Wallchart. I need a good walk anyway to work off the steak and chips I had last night. It's before breakfast and we spot Big John on the green having his morning bowl. The day's initial timetable is discussed and after breakfast it's a walk past the ancestoral home, which Big D remembers. This is good news as he hasn't remembered much else about his boyhood holidays here. From here it's a lovely walk on country lanes to Orchard Stores, where Big John used to work as a baker's boy (the interior of the store doesn't look like it's changed much in 40 odd years....) and onwards then, to the beautiful Freshwater Bay... we even spot the spinnakers of the stragglers in the Round The Island Race.

Big John's Isle Of White Adventure - Day 1

Friday afternoon sees Rolfy with her top off and me in the passenger seat as we cruise once again over the hills of North Somerset, the valleys of Wiltshire and finally into Hampshire - this time, rather than stopping in Lyndhurst we aim for Lymington to meet up with The Tigger and Big D in the carpark of the Isle of Wight ferry to Yarmouth.


After parking the pocket rocket on the mainland and meeting with the Birthday boy, Big John and the lovely Lizzie it's all aboard Caedmon for the trip to Yarmouth and from there.... Freshwater! Childhood home of Big John. We're booking in at the Royal Standard, a rather nice B&B, and looking for food before 9PM. BIG UP THE TIMETABLE POSSE!

Birthday Boys :: Lummox & Bison