Dino Isle

AKA the Isle of White

At the start of the year my little boy asked me where the Isle of Wight was. "Its at the very bottom of England, why?" I asked. "Its Dino Island, can we go?" I gave a typically parent response of "we'll see!". I looked it up, as with most things down south, I was expecting it to quite expensive especially with a ferry journey involved too.... I was pleasantly surprised as it wasn't expensive as I thought so we booked it. We went with ParkDean Resorts and stopped in a little chalet.

The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England. The Isle is regarded as one of the richest areas for Dinosaur discovery in Europe, which has already earned it the title "Dinosaur Island”. In addition to that it was named the UK’s Dinosaur Capital as part of a new Dinosaur Map of Britain, which was compiled by Dr Paul Barrett, Merit Researcher from the Natural History Museum!

We were hoping to find a fossil or two of our own.....

We booked our ferry through our holiday and we sailed from Lymington with Wightlink Ferries. We sailed at 11am on the Saturday and 40 minutes later we landed at Yarmouth.

We couldn't check into our home for the week until 4pm so we decided to go exploring and go and find something nice for dinner. We ended up in Cowes which is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina. Home to the oldest and biggest sailing regatta in the world, Cowes is the number one destination for sailors during the summer months. But it also boasts a rich wealth of history and culture with its ‘twin’ East Cowes just across the Medina estuary.

We parked not far from the front (PO1 7LT), which was pay and display and found our way into the town center. We found a lovely fish and chip shop, Corries cabin, which was just gorgeous and we even got chocolate "fish & chips" and a postcard when we settled the bill! While we were eating we heard on the radio that there was some sort of racing going on so we decided to take a walk to the front to see what we could see. We arrived in time for the final race setting off.

All in all a lovely little seaside town. To find out more to do in Cowes click here

It was now time to go find our caravan park. Situated on the north side of the Isle of Wight, overlooking the Solent, Thorness Bay Holiday Park, sits on a woodland hillside with lovely views out to sea. We usually stay in a caravan but we got a 2 bed chalet instead which was smaller but just as nice and at the end of day it was just a base.

Park offers a lot of entertainment for all ages, throughout the day and evening and even had wrestling one night. They have the starland crew who are the resorts mascots though I think my 9 year old is getting passed that stage, we still managed to get a photo! There was some gorgeous sunsets down on the beach that you acces from the park. The site as an onsite shop, launderette, swimming pool, arcades, playground and of course the bars! It also has a fish and chip take away but that was a bit of a disappointment as it was closed for the back end of the week!

The Starland Krew: Spaarky, Sid, Sparkle and Narkey.

Our first full day was my choice. The only thing I wanted to do while we was there was visit Osborne House, the summer home of Queen Victoria and is where she died. Gorgeous place full of history. If you want to read more about my visit to Osborne please click here. Well worth a visit!

The next day was all about what my little boy wanted to do and of course that meant DINOSAURS! Even though he is 9 years old he is still obsessed with Dinosaurs. There was this lovely little place called Dino isle, a purpose built interactive museum in the seaside town of Sandown. As you walk in there is an exhibition gallery covers the geology and fossils of the Island in a walk back through time, taking us from the Ice Age of the recent past, back to the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs lived.  This leads to the large dinosaur gallery, which has exciting displays including real fossils, skeletal reconstructions, life sized fleshed re-constructions and two animatronic dinosaurs. The boy loved it.

After Dino Isle we had a picnic on the beach and then went to the Isle of wight zoo which was just a short walk up the road. If you showed your Dino Isle ticket you got 10% off the zoo. The zoo was a bit of a let down. A Lot of construction going on and not a big variety of animals. They did seem to house a fair few rescued big cats. They had 2 maneless lions that were rescued from a circus, a fair few tigers and a pair of white lions which were soo cute.

picnic on the beach selfie!

Tuesday saw us take in the Isles most iconic landmarks, the Needles. It is one of the most photographed groups of rocks in the world. This row of three distinctive Chalk stacks features in all the classic views of the island, a truly unforgettable image.

This is what the the Needles Landmark attraction website has to say about the famous rocks. "The name ‘Needles’ is believed to have been derived from a slender tapering rock pinnacle which was formerly situated a little to the north, on the Alum Bay side of the present central rock. This needle-shaped rock, about 120ft high and known as ‘Lot’s Wife’ collapsed into the sea in 1764 with a crash which was said to have been heard many miles away. The stump of this pinnacle can still be seen at low water where it forms a dangerous reef."

Here we took a boat trip to get up close to the rocks, the sea was a bit bumpy and I didn't like it very much but I got some good pictures.

Carisbrooke castle was our next port of call. The is a historic motte and bailey castle in the middle of the Isle. Charles I was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution in 1649. Afterwards his two youngest children were confined in the castle, and Princess Elizabeth died there. From 1896 to 1944, it was the home of Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria. It is now under the control of English Heritage.

Wednesday was camp day aka day of rest!

We resumed our adventures on Thursday with a trip to the lovely village of Godshill and some exploration of the south of the Island. Godshill is the quintessential English Village, and boasts some of the oldest architecture on the Isle of Wight. With its delightful medieval church, charming thatched-roofed cottages and a winding main-street lined with traditional tearooms, Godshill is as picturesque as it is popular. It is also known for being the site of the first ever Isle of Wight Festival, which took place at Ford Farm in 1968. We took in the model village, the local chocolate shop and had a gorgeous a cream tea. We then set off south to Ventnor. Not quite as impressed with this seaside town as we were with Sandown as there was a nasty smell about the place so we had some dinner and left for the southernmost point.

Google had said at the most southernmost point, St Catherine's point, there was a lighthouse, a 16th century Inn and something called an Oratory. I thought all of these were photo opportunities not to be missed so off we went.

There was no vehicle access to the lighthouse so we parked at the bundle Inn, had a drink and walked the rest of the way. This is not an officially car park to the lighthouse but when I asked inside for where we could park he said as the pub wasn't busy we could. Although we didn't go right down to the lighthouse as the boy was been a monkey and a tractor was heading down the track so we couldn't go far anyway.

I was keen to find out what the Oratory was which was about a 5 minute drive away. The Oratory is Britain's only surviving medieval lighthouse though obviously no longer in operation as it was replaced by the current St Catherine's lighthouse after wreck in 1837. This one was built much closer to the sea at St Catherine's point. If you would like to read more about our walk to the Oratory please click here

With that the full tour of the Isle of Wight was completed, with a few bits in between. A good holiday and there was plenty of things to do and places to visit and even the weather was kind! Well recommended! All downside was that we didn't find any fossils of our own but Isaac made up for it by buying some!

As always thank you for taking the time to read and I'll leave you with one last photo of the view point of Sandown and one of my favorite shots of the holiday!