The Magical Island [The Isle of Wight Series - Episode 4 - Part 1]

jonjon1 (63)in #travel • 8 years ago (edited)

Ventnor - A beautiful little seaside town on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England.

Hi Steemians,

So this week I spent a whole day exploring the small seaside town and resort of Ventnor. This charming, idyllic little place is located on the south coast of the Island, slightly to the right of center as you can see from a map of the island below.

I took hundreds of photos and meandered through quite a large area of Ventnor, particularly lower Ventnor, which is the part along the coast down from the super steep cliff edge. With the cliffs actually creating a sort of shelter for the lower part of Ventnor, you can actually find here a vast array of sub-tropical plant species, including palm trees, which I find really funny considering we are here in old Blighty (England) but because of the shelter and the fact we are at one of the southern most parts of the British Isles, you will find here a micro climate that doesn't actually get as cold as the mainland and has some truly beautiful days for large parts of the year. I was here this week and for mid October it was warm, sunny and even the leaves on the trees are all still very much green!

So because I got so much good material and I had such a fun day exploring this place, I will split this episode into two or three, most likely three parts, to do it justice for you folks :)

So I started in the main shopping area, where you'll find a good selection of mostly independent shops and hardly any corporations, which is always nice to see, many of these shops are specialist, some family run and have such charm and character and it's nice to see these shops still thriving here and long may that continue.

Below is a dinky toy shop, not many of these left in the country now, but to me growing up as a kid, these places were far more fun than toys r us.

And here is a shop on the corner that sells very old clocks..

Looking up from the shop lanes, you can see how this place begins to drop down very steeply in places, and we are not at the beach yet..

I also had to get a picture of one of these very old, truly iconic phone red phone boxes for all my Steem friends around the world. These phone boxes are incredibly rare in Britain nowadays, not least because we all seem to be walking around glued to mobile phones, but it is good that some of these boxes are still preserved..

Now I am heading towards the Esplanade, what they call the beach front area, which I can assure you.. you are going to love! but here is one last shot looking back towards the town area..

As I turn round, I head towards the sea front. Apparently Charles Dickens once lived quite nearby to here.

This little resort started life as a fishing hamlet, and as you can see in the photo below there is still one fellow that has a thriving fishing business right on the sea-front, slightly to the left in the image.

The large building to the right in the image below is a hotel, but not any of the corporate, soulless chains, you won't find them here.. or at least I haven't so far. What you will find are tonnes of bed & breakfast' and small family run hotels with lots of character and spirit. A uniqueness lost in today's corporate world of greed and uniformity.

I could swear being on this Island sometimes makes me think I stepped into the tardis from doctor who and time traveled back to Victorian England.

Here are some of the tropical plants I mentioned earlier.. so much color here!

So, now I am heading down to the Esplanade, so I'll just roll off a few pictures here of the sea-front, it's really very beautiful.. and October seems to be the best time to be here as it's still quite mild and sunny but there is a distinct lack of tourists now, nothing like how busy it can get in the high summer months, so I'm happy.

The place really comes into it's own now, the further into it I explore, but the images will progressively get better I think throughout my walk. Notice the man on the beach with the metal detector, there are some unique fossils and a sort of stone here that is worth a bit, so I would assume that's what he's after..

The calming roar of the ocean.. I love how peaceful it was here though. Very relaxing place.

Looking back in the other direction..

There's a couple of nice little cafe's on the sea-front too..

Honestly, it felt like I had the whole place to myself..

I'm at the end of the Esplanade now, but there is a really cool pub above me called the spyglass that I pop into and have a pint of Guinness and a bite to eat on a bench outside with the best pub beer garden views on offer here..

This fella looked happy to see me! he was the mascot for the Spyglass, the very nice pub I had lunch and a pint at.

Onwards and upwards.

Now I'm overlooking where I had just sat and had chips and a pint! :) The large ships in the background are heading back and forth between the mainland and France. This place at night when it is clear is really beautiful too as there is hardly any light pollution here with no cities around anywhere on the south coast.

Okay folks, I have so much more material on Ventnor, my journey has just started really and I am only a quarter way through my images, and as the day progressed the sun came out as I sauntered towards the downs and gardens along the cliff edge higher up, you'll begin to see how much of an eden this place is when it's in bloom! and less busy with tourists. There's a little Zen type garden overlooking the beach to come also plus much more, so this episode will be in at least 3 parts now as I don't want to make these posts too long for you guys.

I hoped you enjoyed part one of this episode, thank you for reading and following my explorations of the Island once know as Vectis, which was the old name the Romans used for the Isle of Wight, though I tend to think it's more likely that Vectis was Pre-Roman and actually a Celtic word, as the Celts were here way before the Roman invaders, who then bought their civil laws and all that nonsense, but that's a story for another day.

Stay tuned for Part Two very soon folks! and if you enjoyed, please consider following me, thanks mates!

With love,
Jon :)