Day Four - Isle of Wight - 6 April

Day Four - Isle of Wight - 6 April

It’s was Good Friday but it wasn’t a good Friday for Henk. He seems to have caught the gastro/vomiting virus which has been reported in the local paper as sweeping through the island. Unlike yesterday, It was a lovely, cool sunny day but Henk didn’t see any of it as he was confined to bed. Hopefully, with the medication I got from Boot’s Chemist he will be back to his old self very soon. I stayed with Henk for the morning (touching wood I wouldn’t get it!) and then set out exploring Shanklin in the afternoon whilst he slept. Everyone was out enjoying the Bank Holiday and the sunshine. It’s interesting that Good Friday is referred to by the BBC as a Bank Holiday and Good Friday is not mentioned. All the shops are open.

It took only ten minutes from our hotel for me to walk down to the Old Village of Shanklin. It is comprised of old thatched cottages and is very quaint. Today the old cottages are tea rooms, pubs and little shops. It is very popular with tourists. I felt a bit guilty sitting in the lovely gardens of a tea house eating very tasty crab sandwiches with a salad whilst Henk couldn’t keep down water!

I ventured down to the Shanklin Chine near the Old Village. It’s also a popular tourist attraction. I bought a one pound information sheet to learn that “chine” is local word only used in the Isle of Wight and Dorset and is an old Saxon word meaning ravine. I could see why it would attract the English tourist as it had a feeling of a tropical national park forest with its little waterfalls, overhanging vines and a stream meandering through it.

Henk was not up to going out to eat so I ventured out in the evening to the the local pub, The Plough and Barleycorn, for dinner. Christina, our lovely host, made Henk plain sandwiches with some plain biscuits for dinner. Tomorrow is a very early start with a taxi arriving at six o’clock to take us back to Ryde to catch the six forty-five ferry back to Portsmouth. Then it’s onto Guernsey. Photos: A sunny afternoon at Shanklin Beach; The Crab Pub, The Old Village; The Shanklin Chine; My crab sandwiches;