Friday 25th June - Godshill St Catherines Down, Coast Walk, Compton Beach and Badger

Another day of glorious sunshine.

I can't believe it is Friday already where has the week gone?

Every year we say we are not going to Godshill again but every holiday we manage to do so! This year's excuse was because my daughter wanted to buy some of the scrumptious chocolate from "Chocolate Island". Godshill is a very picturesque village but can be exceedingly busy at times.















Here is the classic "chocolate box" photo of Godshill - also seen on dozens of calendars.







I sacrificed another icecream and paid a very brief visit to the church.





Unfortunately, I did not get time to read the guidebook to the church until after the visit so I managed to miss both the Lily Cross and the rare "Bedesmen" on the Leigh Monument!

My photos of stained glass windows taken without flash were a complete disaster so none posted!















Behind one of the shops in the village is a very pretty little cottage garden that you can walk around.









We had a picnic lunch at the viewpoint above Blackgang Chine.





Photos from a walk along the coast path.







Looking down at St Catherine's Lighthouse.





St Catherine's Oratory

This is known locally as the "Pepperpot". It is a medieval stone lighthouse built in 1314 by a local landowner as an act of penance for stealing wine from a shipwreck. The light was maintained by a priest until the 1530's who also offered prayers for those lost at sea.

The lighthouse is a mysterious place and often when I look towards it at night from the windows of the house where we are staying I half expect to see a light from its windows!





We spent the rest of the afternoon walking on the beautiful Compton Beach which is my favourite beach.You can see dinosaur footprints here and hunt for fossils. This time I was successful and found a piece of chalk containing a fossilized segment of crinoid stem. Crinoids which have lived from as far back as the Cambrian to the present day are echinoderms and are also called sea lilies because they resemble plants. They lived in shallow seas. I was really rather chuffed as this is the first fossil I have found on this beach.













Hanover Point which has a fossil forest.








After another meal at the Wight Mouse I watched the field next to the garden from my daughter's bedroom window in the hope that I would see the badger. After looking for three quarters of an hour I was just about to give up as it was getting very dark when suddenly I could just make out a grey shape moving along the hedgerow and as it got nearer the house and, just before it disappeared again through a gap in the hedge, I could just make out the black and white stripes on its face. I was thrilled - my first badger in the wild.