Isle of Wight

Saturday was the first international office-organized trip of the summer term, so it was time to get back into the habit of waking up Saturdays at the crack of dawn (which is actually much earlier these days so it is light outside when I wake up, but still 6:30!). Anyway, two coach-loads of Sussex students and I were up bright and early to go to the Isle Wight. This trip took a good 3 hours but included a ferry ride. We took the ferry from Portsmouth, which was a fun break from sitting on the bus, and very windy. The whole day it was pretty windy so look out for pics of me struggling with hair. Despite this, and some early morning rain, the day turned out to be a fairly nice one for walking around outside. Its a good thing too, because besides being on the bus, we spent the whole day walking along the beaches and cliff of the Isle of Wight.

Portsmouth from the ferry

The Isle of Wight is around 380 square km large and has several small towns on it. Famous past residents of the island include Alfred Lord Tennyson and of course Queen Victoria who moved the summer residence from the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, which she deemed too small, to Osborne House on the island. However, since we didn't have too much time on the island, we spent most of the day looking at the natural attractions of the island. We were all impressed by the sandy beach which actually smelled like the sea since Brighton's beach is very rocky/pebbly and doesn't have that distinctive salty and seaweedy smell. We had a quick lunch by the beach in a little town called Shaklin. One of the international students leading the trip warned us not to walk too far in search of food because "the town eventually runs out and you'll end up waking down a dirt road."

look real sand!

Although we had planned to walk over Tennyson Down the slightly threatening weather forced us to drive instead to Alum Bay where we went on a brief walk, climbing over fences on the way, to see the needles rocks. Despite the plan change, it was a nice walk and we did get get to see the cool rocks which we would not have had time for otherwise.

someone's yard that we passed o the way to the needles.
climbing over fences
the needles

circling boats

Next, we went to see the nearby colored sands which were really awesome and beautiful. They remind me a bit of canyons you see in the southwest. not at all what I was expecting to find in England. It is especially interesting because these colored cliffs are so close to the much whiter ones near the needles rocks. the contrast is super cool when standing between them.

Finally, after only a few hours around Alum Bay we had to catch the ferry back to Portsmouth. Luckily we got on the buses right before it started to drizzle. While it would have been nice to have more time on the island, it was a great trip and it was nice to spend one trip outdoors along the beaches and cliffs rather than in a city.