Happy Returns

Amid all the excitement of a new smartphone and new spectacles, I forgot to mention that our holiday plans for this year are now complete. I've already written about our plans for the Lake District; to them I can now add a week at the other end of the country – The South Downs and The Isle of Wight. Both locations will (hopefully) be 'happy returns' to areas we have visited before.

First base will be Shipley, in West Sussex, which my good friend Lucy informs me is a very pleasant village, with a handsome old windmill and plenty of paths to explore. It sound idyllic.  It's also only a few miles from the Downs Link footpath which, as its name suggests, will take us onto the South Downs Way. We walked the South Downs from Winchester to Eastbourne on a sometimes misty but mostly baking hot week in September 2007. My lasting memories are the rock-hard chalk footpaths, the questionable joy of tackling the Seven Sisters with tired legs and the sense of elation when Eastbourne finally came into view.

After Shipley we take to the high seas for a ferry trip to the Isle of Wight. On our only other visit there, back in 1971, we were expecting our first child and felt obliged to take things a little easy. Money was tight in those days, so we left our car at my aunt's in Lymington, crossed over to Yarmouth, then caught a bus to Alum Bay to see The Needles.

We walked out to the Old Battery, where there was a 'shilling in the slot' telescope.  I put my little camera to the sharp end and took this photo, which I used to think was wonderful. Mmm,!

In truth, memories of the Isle of Wight are very vague. I remember taking the bus to Newport, changing for one to Shanklin, then returning via the railway and a bus from Ryde, but there are no photographs to record the adventure. This visit will be very different; I've already paid out to take the car and we'll be staying on the island for a few days. Oh, and I can categorically state that pregnancy is a thing of the past!