Tag Archives: united kingdom

Cowes – Where I Used to Live

More of our Isle of Wight flying here. Just a short highlight of a place I spent a lot of my childhood. Cowes is the place I lived and went to school for a number of years. We lived in a few places but our last home was in an apartment on the seafront. It was a great spot and I enjoyed living there. So much to see. We flew over it and I managed to grab one shot of our old place. I also got a shot my old school which appears to be about to be demolished with a huge new set of building having sprung up on our old playing fields.

A few shots of the harbor were also possible as we orbited around before we headed off to our next stop!

Boats from Above

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Continuing with the round the Island flight that Pete and I took, we ended up having a bit of a maritime excursion. It seems that anyone with a boat was out waiting for us, whatever form those boats took. As we reached Yarmouth, the Wightlink ferry was arriving so I got a shot of it. As we reached Cowes, the Red Funnel ferry was coming out so we got it too. Just off Cowes, the paddle steamer Waverly was blasting along (she really can move) so an orbit of her was required.

On to Fishbourne and two more Wightlink ferries. One was just departing and the other just arriving. They have to turn around at this point so a little dance ensues as seen from above. Then it was on to Ryde and there we get a hovercraft making its arrival. None of this was planned so I guess we were just on a lucky roll. Then, as we headed across to Portsmouth, the catamaran from Ryde was on its way so we got a shot of that too. I guess that is a full set for access to the Island!

The Needles

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My relative Pete shares a number of interests with me with flying being a big one. He is an airline pilot currently flying 747s but he also has a Piper Arrow that has been in the family for decades. He maintains this on the Isle of Wight and, with us coming across to see my mum, he was keen to go and play. As has been the case a few times recently, the weather was not ideal but we still had enough to go so we took a trip around the Island.

One of the Isle of Wight’s most famous landmarks is The Needles. A chalk outcrop at the western end of the island with a lighthouse built on the end of it, I am by no means the first person to photograph it. When I first learned to fly and took people on trips around the Island, this was always the bit everyone wanted to see.

I was shooting through the windows of the Arrow which is not ideal but they were in pretty good shape and I managed to avoid too many reflections. The Needles looked as impressive as ever and we got a pretty good look before heading on to Alum Bay, home of the multicolored sands. On an overcast day, the colors were hardly popping but you can take my word for it, the colors really do vary!

Beaulieu

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Continuing our UK trip, we were still in the New Forest and I wanted to visit Beaulieu. It is many years since I have been to Beaulieu. My grandparents took me there once and we went with the school on one occasion too. However, I wasn’t interested in visiting the motor museum on this occasion. Certainly, if I had a lot more time, I would have loved to take a look around but we didn’t have that much time. Instead, I wanted to see the village which, judging by some pictures I had seen online, looked like it was very picturesque.

First, though, I had to stay awake. As we drove there, I was feeling rather drowsy. Not a good state to be but hardly surprising given how long I had been awake. When we got the village, I put the seat back and had a nap for a few minutes. This was a big help. Nancy was tired but not able to nap so she checked out a tea shop while I closed my eyes.

We then took a walk around the village. It is by a river and is very pretty. Lots of small houses and shops combined with a big green area all alongside the estate of the Earl which now houses the motor museum. What I hadn’t realized is how much wildlife wanders around. Yes there were ducks and swans. I didn’t know that cows, horses and donkeys were loose in the area. The donkeys seem to like the shops and apparently walk in if they feel like it. The horses and cows were grazing on the more grassy areas but if they needed to get somewhere, they would walk up the street and trucks coming the other way would just have to wait. Could I come up with something more English for our first day back?

Birds of Prey

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This is the first of a series of posts that shall crop up in the coming weeks that are from a trip to the UK. Both my parents had significant birthdays this year and parties for both of them were to top and tail a trip back for us. It has been a long time since we were back and it was nice to see a lot of people while we were there.

We arrived in Heathrow early in the morning and picked up the rental car. We didn’t have anyone to see that day and our hotel wouldn’t be free until later in the day so we had a mission to keep ourselves busy and to stay awake. Consequently, we headed down to the New Forest in search of a bird of prey sanctuary.

We had found this place online so didn’t know much more about it than the website. The GPS got us there without any trouble. I had bought the Europe maps for our Garmin because, despite years of getting around the UK without having heard of GPS, now I guess I am dependent! The place was not huge but it had a very large collection of birds including lots of species of owl. We wandered around looking at the various birds before a small flying demonstration took place on their flying field. Apparently some of the bigger birds would be flying at the second show but we were content with what they had earlier on. We didn’t want to spend all day there.

At the end of the flying, they brought out a couple of baby barn owls. They were just in the stage of fledging but were still very fluffy and we were encouraged to stroke them to see just how soft they were. Very soft and very cute. It’s almost like I am back in my cute baby animal posts!