Landslips, fallen trees, signs and a church

[ladyofastolat]

Lovely weather this weekend, so I've spent much of it outside and walking.



Yesterday we did the "West Wight Triangle" - i.e. along the river from Freshwater Bay on the south coast to Yarmouth on the north, then along the north coast to the Needles, and back to Freshwater Bay along the south coast. One reason I like this walk is that there are a lot of cafes on it, so there's no need to take water with you.

There have been a lot of landslips on the north coast round here. The trouble with much of our coast is that it's made from... well, from blue Play dough, really. It's known locally "Blue Slipper," because it's blue, and cliffs made from it slip all the time. As I now know, it also melts when it gets very wet.







This last picture shows a bit of molten cliff that has flowed down onto the beach and solidified there. There were loads of these rather pretty formations on the beach.

Oh, before I took these pictures, we passed Cafe no. 1, which was closed for the winter. A few minutes later, we reached Cafe no. 2, which was closed for the winter. The path then detoured inland for a little while, since an enormous cliff fall last year took out a whole mile of sea wall, where the coastal path used to run. Cafe no. 3 was closed due to having a cliff fall on its head. Cafe no. 4 was closed for the winter.

This stretch of path used to be fairly nicely paved.



Here is Headon Warren, where half the entire hill has taken a little walk downhill. Although it's not fallen far, a lot of land has been affected here.





Cafe no. 5, at Alum Bay, was open until 4. We arrived at 3.59, and were turned away. Cafe no. 6, at the Needles Battery, opens next week. Cafe no. 7, 4 miles on in Freshwater Bay, was closed for the winter. Thankfully, we had water in the car half a mile on, since we were pretty much dying of thirst by then.

It wasn't quite sunset, but getting that way:





Today I'd intended to do one sort of walk, but was prevented by signs:



Since no alternative path presented itself, I decided to head inland and follow signs in a fairly random way, and see where I ended up. As a result, I ended up meandering through Parkhurst Forest, weaving through Carisbrooke, and then headed back to Cowes along the cycle path. The paths are noticeably less muddy than just a week ago, but there were still a lot of places full of unmitigated squelch. The forest was not without its hazards, too.



Here is Carisbrooke village church, built c. 1070 as Carisbrooke Priory.





This monument was built in 1520 and commerated Lady Wadham, wife of the Captain of the Island, aunt of Jane Seymour, and grandmother of the founder of Wadham College.



And here is a poetical monument to William Keeling, who discovered the Cocos Islands (Keeling Islands) in the Far East.



Here is a nice, confusing sign near Carisbrooke Castle:

Comments

[leesa_perrie]

Those melted rocks formations could be lava, except for colour. I didn't know the Island could melt!

Like the random boat in the fourth photo, and that hill slip looks scary. Gorgeous photos of the church, though that last one? Just a little confusing!! :)

Thank you for the photos, love them.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I don't know if that boat is supposed to be there, or if it's been swept up there by a storm. Either way, I don't think I'd like to take a ride in it!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Fascinating!

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Cliff-falls, landslips, fault lines and the earth melting... I'm guessing maps of the island have best before dates?

I think we can excuse café 3, having been flattened by falling rocks, but what on earth were all the other cafés thinking of? Do they not understand that when the sun is shining people need tea?

Carisbrooke Church is splendid. And the Keeling memorial is just plain awesome. Wonderful photos - thank you!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm using an OS map dating from about 25 years ago, because it shows the entire island in 1:25,000 scale on a single side of the map. The newer editions in this scale are two-sided, and I can rant until I'm blue in the face about the hideous awfulness of 2-sided OS maps. As a result, my map is getting increasingly inaccurate. Loads of paths have either completely vanished, or still physically exist, but in a perilous form onto which only a fool would venture.