We left home on the Friday about 10.20 am which was later than we planned - as usual!!! We hit traffic at the usual places on the journey to Lymington where we were catching the 2.00 pm ferry to the Isle of Wight. Consequently we arrived at five minutes past two and had just missed the ferry!!! Wightlink are very good though and just put you on the next ferry which was 40 minutes later. At least it gave us time to eat our sandwiches and have a look around the ferry terminal shop.
The ferry journey from Lymington to Yarmouth is fairly short - around 35/40 minutes.
Arrival at Yarmouth - you can see Yarmouth Castle in the second photo.
Some of D's photos of the ferry crossing
We stayed in a beautiful thatched cottage which is early C17th and Grade II listed. I think it is about the fourth time we have stayed here as it is in a lovely location. There is a really beautiful cottage garden full of herbaceous plants at the rear of the cottage.
Front of the cottage
There were sea hollies in the garden which were absolutely covered in bumble bees - white-tailed, buff tailed, red tailed and common carder.
D spotted a wren taking food into a nest which had been built in the cottage's thatched roof.
This is the old fireplace in the dining room - it even has a bread oven :)
One day we were thrilled to see a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in the garden nectaring on Salvia "Hot Lips" and later Valerian. D managed to get a few record shots.
D did a coastal path walk from Niton early the next morning. I have included the photos in this post as it gives you an idea of the village where we stayed and its surroundings.
This plant is Hottentot Fig which is native to South Africa. It is a plant that has been grown in gardens since around 1690 and was first recorded in the wild in 1886. It is classed as an invasive species and can be a threat to wild plants. Its distribution is limited to coastal areas around the south and south west of England. It also occurs on the south and north west coast of Wales. I don't think we can count it though in our 2026 Wild Plant Challenge!
This is St Catherine's Lighthouse built in 1883 by Trinity House to guide shipping in the channel and vessels approaching the Solent. It is situated at Niton undercliff and was automated in 1997. We once went on a tour of the lighthouse which was really interesting and well worth doing.
We arrived at the cottage just after 4.00 p.m. and after unpacking the car spent the evening relaxing.
Sorry for all the photos but I also use this blog as a record of my days out, holidays and church crawling. You will be relieved to hear I haven't included all the photos we took :)
Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and those marked *D taken by my son with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
