"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - Little Gidding (1942)

There's no evidence whatsoever that T. S. Eliot visited Fort Victoria, but surely he must have had in mind somewhere similar when he wrote these lines. Sometimes the most amazing discoveries and the most thrilling adventures can be found right on our doorstep. Or just next door, in the case of Fort Victoria County Park.

There are dozens of footpaths criss-crossing the woodlands, making it a great place to discover ‘secret paths’ and witches dens. Some of these paths lead down to the shoreline where lots of fascinating stuff can be unearthed. Try to imagine elephants and rhinoceroses roaming this land as they did hundreds of thousands of years ago, or seas millions of years ago teeming with sharks, turtles and crocodiles. The evidence can all be found at the ranger's office in the fort (next to the toilets, handily).

Dotted around the woodlands and shoreline are carvings made from fallen trees. See if you can find: the owl, the snake, the dolphin and the soldier. The rangers sometimes run outdoor activities such as rockpool rummaging, or fossil hunting. Do check out the rangers office to see what you might expect to discover on your expedition.

🌐 https://www.fort-victoria.co.uk

Imaginarium

Boathouse Café

The Isle of Wight is one of the best places in Europe to find dinosaur remains. Over 20 types of dinosaur from around 120 million years ago have been discovered here, and one of the best places to look is the south-west coastline from Compton Bay to Atherfield.

If you scour the shingle on the shoreline at low tide, you may find a shiny black polished pebble with a honeycomb structure at one end. Scrape it on another stone and if it leaves a black mark it's likely to be fossilised wood, if it doesn't, it could well be a piece of dinosaur bone.. You're almost guaranteed to find fossils of one kind or another just knowing a little about what to look for.

If you're at Compton Bay at spring low tide (ie, the low tides close to a new or full moon) then you'll be able to see dinosaur footprints in the rocks. For the exact location use the What3Words app and the words ///loudness.flesh.visions. Look out for a square hole in the rock where someone has stolen one of the footprints and the others will appear nearby.

The Natural History Museum has a guide to dinosaur fossil hunting on the Isle of Wight on its website, and there's also a lot of information at Dinowight. For advice and guided trips, try The Fossil Man at Island Gems, or Dinosaur Isle.

Compton Beach

Chessel Pottery Café

Buy a crabbing line from Harwoods in the main square in Yarmouth, and a pack of bacon from Harveys next door (OK, ‘nearly free’ then). The best places to catch crabs are the pontoons around the harbour, or those further up the river, or on the pier. Great fun for kids, less so for the crabs. So please return them to their homes quickly and safely.

Rules:

1. Use a bait bag, not a hook
   
2.  Maximum three crabs per bucket; return any fighting crabs
   
3.  Replace sea water every 10 minutes and keep your bucket in the shade
   
4.  Return crabs to the sea gently
   
5.  Take all equipment and litter with you when you've finished
   

Yarmouth Castle

Off the Rails

Not strictly free, but near enough (£1). Yarmouth Pier is the oldest-surviving public wooden pier left in the British Isles, and if you want to know why, check out the seat next to the Lifeboat mooring in the harbour. That monster (or a little version of it) is called a ‘gribble’, and it loves to eat wooden piers. If the gribbles aren’t enough to entertain the kids during the relaxing stroll along the pier, tell them to count how many decking planks there are for an ice cream (correct answer: 552).

Yarmouth Castle

Off the Rails