The Needles

Day 1 on the Isle of Wight:
Steve and I slept late in the fisherman's cottage we are staying in, adjoined to our friends ' house in Freshwater Bay. The bed was soft and the heavy patchwork blanket kept us warm.

After breakfast in 'the big house' (Bob's latest treat is lumpfish roe on toast) we nipped out to the Needles, the Island's chalk stacks standing in the sea near Alum Bay. (CleanSteve has a fabulous blip shot of the striated cliffs at Alum Bay). Up at the viewpoint, there is also an eerie reminder of the post war world, with an old rocket launching station that dates from the times that Britain was aiming to launch Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles. It reminded me of visiting the cliffside gun emplacements in Normandy that date back to WWII.



After re