Fox and badger - that's not the name of a village pub but the wildlife sightings during our first ten minutes on the Isle of Wight, and from the car window too! The famous red squirrels were a bit more elusive, but once we had seen one, we saw lots - and they weren't shy either!

This has been what you might call a week of two halves. The first half was spent camping over on the East of the island where we were subjected to high winds, and were worried every time we returned to the tent that it would still be there. The weather improved after we moved to a campsite on the West, where we managed to pitch our tent in the middle of a large group of noisy wind surfers, but we didn't realise that until they returned later in the day.

It's an island of two halves too. The West has more people, and Osborne House where we were privileged to stand in the very bedroom where Queen Victoria spent her last days. Helen was disappointed that the kitchens had been demolished because her great grandmother had worked there. The cinema in Ventnor had also met the same fate, which was where her father had received his top-secret briefing in 1944 as the preparations for D-Day drew to a close.

The East of the island is quieter and more rugged, but it wasn't so quiet one weekend in 1970 when Jimi Hendrix made his last public appearance. This was allegedly the largest attended rock festival of all time. I find the quoted number of 600,000 a bit hard to believe, but it was still a personal fascination for me to cycle along Afton Down and imagine what it was like. The facts may be open to manipulation, but it was a legendary event that was the forerunner to all the festivals that came afterwards.

The high winds prevented us from cycling around the island's peninsula, but we found the disused railway lines heading inland to be far more pleasant than the fast coastal roads anyway, and have covered quite a lot of ground that way. Leaving the car behind was quite handy when stopping at vineyards for wine tasting, and old thatched pubs for beer tasting. Along with the local produce picked up at an agricultural show, the garlic farm, and the house of chilli, we have probably put on more pounds this week than we have cycled off. And you should have seen the size of the cake platter we got through at Osborne House. It did include Victoria sponge though, so it had to be done. The rest of the food this week has mostly been seafood, including crab pasties and fish and chips by the sea, and my first ever lobster thermidor.

Of course, a visit to the Isle of Wight wouldn't be complete without a walk along the downs to view the famous chalk sea stacks known as the Needles, a visit to Ventnor Botanical Gardens, and an evening walk through the colourfully lit Shanklin Chine. Yes, we did manage to fit quite a lot in this week, despite the poor start with the weather.

Posted on December 6th 2015.