Walk 16 Wootton to Butterfly World and Isle of Wight Lavender Farm - 6.5 miles

This walk started just south of Wootton, at the bus stop past Wootton Station. It was a pleasant if not especially scenic walk through fields and meadows around the old railway. Packsfield Lane leads to the steam railway line.

The path heads across fields and these lambs were happy to stay quite close to the path as I crossed their field.

Not the greatest walk for flower spotting, but there were some wild roses in the hedgerows.

The route re-crosses the railway line before heading back.

The walk itself finishes by the Sloop Inn at Wootten Bridge, known for their low priced carvery and riverside location, both of which I sampled and enjoyed.

Looking downriver along Old Mill Pond.

I walked for a while along New Road on the western side of the creek. You cannot get right down to the water's edge as the road runs between private properties and their waterfront gardens and jetties, but plenty of boats can be viewed between hedges.

A pirate boat was terrorising the seas today!

This lovely swan was a special bonus.

My reason for the walk was a photo trip to Butterfly and Fountain World, so I set out back along Whiterails Rd towards Newport, a 40 stretch along the main road with no pavements, not a route I'd bother to do again.

Butterfly World is a visitor attraction aiming to bring awareness of the environmental needs of the butterfly and, as on many days, there was a party of school children being led around learning about the 52 varieties of butterflies housed here.

The butterflies are housed in a tropical glasshouse, and I was daft enough to choose the hottest day of the year so far to visit, so it was absolutely sweltering! As well as butterflies, small birds, like these zebra finches, flutter about you.

They are quite tricky to photograph as they don't stay still for long, so you have one at rest to focus a decent shot.

I can't identify many of the butterflies, but I think this one is a Malachite; I love the way it's camouflaged with its surroundings.

This one I think is the Common Indian Crow.

A Malabar Tree Nymph, native to India.

Butterflies like strawberries! Who knew?

Also on the site is Fountain World, a series of gardens centred around water features.

A few minutes down the road is the turn off for the Isle of Wight Lavender Farm, which I had been meaning to visit in lavender season. The track leading to the farm is about a 15 minute walk but seemed longer in the heat!

The lavender fields were not yet in bloom, but the gardens were lovely.

Tempted by the offer of a lift back to the main road, I didn't stay long, so a return visit is planned for a little later in the month.

Walk map full size

Walk Details
Start: Wootton Bridge
Finish: Isle of Wight Lavender Farm (Open 10-4, closed Wed and Sun)
Distance: 6.5 miles
Refreshments and WC: Wootton village, The Sloop Inn, Butterfly World and Lavender Farm.

Walk 15 South Coast Path Brighstone to Freshwater Bay - 6.5 miles

The next stage of my coastal path walk began in sunshine at the Isle of Wight Pearl, but after about 50 minutes, black clouds were looming so we retraced our steps to the car park, arriving just as drizzle started, leaving us no option but to repair to the Wight Mouse Inn for a spot of lunch and complete the walk another day.
I was trying out my new camera for the first part of the walk and apologise for the blurry images...more practice required!

Chilton Chine

Some very decorative Jersey cows came up to meet us.

On the hill across the road can be seen Brook Hill House, where JB Priestley lived from 1953 to 1959.

 Brook Chine

 Two days later I picked up the route again at the car park by Brook Chine.

The Brook Bay rocks are the oldest on this coastline, part of the Wealden Group, composed of red mudstone and sandstone. Here can be found fossils and dinosaur footprints from the Cretaceous period, when Iguanodon and the armoured Polacanthis walked the slopes. This one can be seen on the beach near Hanover Point.

This is a very soft rock and these shots show the erosion process in action.

 

By contrast, Compton and Freshwater Bays are backed by the relatively more stable chalk cliffs.

The fields just below the road at Compton Bay were covered in an amazing display of Pyramidal Orchids, or Anacamptis pyramidalis. Though fairly rare it flourishes on the chalky soil here and has been named the County Flower of the Island.

If anyone knows what kind of moth/butterfly this is, please leave a comment!

Nearing Freshwater Bay, the white cliffs of Tennyson Down stretch away. The white building is the Freshwater Bay House Hotel, which currently hosts a Dandelion cafe.

A sad reminder of Edward Lewis Miller, a boy of "great mental endowment" according to his tombstone in Goudhurst. Aged just 15, the lad was killed in a cliff fall from this place on 28 August 1846.

On top of the cliff is Fort Redoubt, a Palmerston fort, built in 1855 but now containing a modern private residence. A tunnel links the fort with the smugglers caves below.

This great slab fell off the main cliff in 1968 and is known as Mermaid Rock.

The gull is perched on Stag Rock, so called because of the story that a stag jumped from the cliff to this rock to escape the hunt.

No longer visible, this was the site of the local landmark Arch Rock until it collapsed in 1992.

Kayaking is a popular way of exploring the Freshwater smugglers' caves exposed at low tide; walkers do it too, but it is easy to get cut off.

This is one of the island's most picturesque beaches, with its crescent of grey flint and pebble beach.

Just up the lane from the bay is Dimbola Lodge, the home of the Victorian pioneer photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. Inside is a café and museum with visiting exhibitions and a permanent display of Cameron's photos of eminent local residents, including Tennyson, Darwin and Ellen Terry, as well as a charming portrait of Lewis Carroll's Alice Liddell.

Julia Margaret Cameron [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

East Afton Farm on the other side of the bay was the site of the iconic 1970 Isle of Wight Pop festival, when around 100,000 music lovers descended on this remote corner of the island. A permanent exhibition on the festival is housed in Dimbola Lodge and the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix is commemorated in the grounds.

Walk Details
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