21st February – Isle of Wight and Gerry’s Health Update
So far February has been a good month. We enjoyed a long weekend on the Isle of Wight and managed to see most of the Island as well as the English Heritage sites of Osborne House and Carisbrooke Castle. We managed a couple of walks including one to the battery at the Needles which was closed (we did know that before we set out on the walk). The walk was bracing and with some lovely views particularly of Alum Bay. Unfortunately, the camera (or more likely the photographer) could not capture the variations in colour well enough. We made two visits to Osborne house; the first was a delightful walk and then a mini bus ride to the beach where Queen Victoria and her family used to bathe. We had a lovely cup of coffee sitting on the veranda of the cafe looking out onto the Solent. Wrapped up warm we found it idyllic. Returning to the house we booked a guided tour for the following morning rather than wait around for an hour or so.
We then headed to Carisbrooke Castle (where King Charles 1 was imprisoned) and enjoyed over an hour walking around the site and the ramparts including the very beautiful chapel.
We also learned about how donkeys operate a ‘hamster wheel’ to draw water – impressive.
We then visited some of the coastal towns, and found most to be disappointing with the exception of Ventnor. Ventnor’s esplanade was pleasant, clean and the shops generally bright.
The following day we enjoyed a brilliant guided tour of Osborne House seeing some rooms that were not generally open to the public and then wandered through the gardens. It seemed odd looking at Queen Victoria’s private rooms but at least one could appreciate what life was like for Royalty in the Victorian era. We were both amazed at Prince Albert’s talents for design and detail – he must have been some special person.
After the visit we headed to the other side of the Island to Freshwater and the (well recommended) Red Lion Pub where we hoped to get lunch. Unfortunately, we could not get into the car park and there was absolutely no parking anywhere near the pub. Cutting our losses we walked along a bridleway beside the Yar Estuary all the way to Yarmouth. The walk there and back was about 6km and we managed it quite easily although Gerry was tired at the end.
On our return from the island we diverted to visit Jenny and Mark’s home where we met Mark’s parents for the first time in about three years. A long and busy but very enjoyable weekend.
HEALTH UPDATE On Tuesday Gerry saw his consultant and heard the results of his latest scan. They were much better than our wildest expectations. The chemo had zapped the lymphoma such that there was nothing to see. As a result Gerry did not have to have chemos 7 and 8 and moves on to a maintenance regime. This involves ‘nicer’ chemotherapy every eight weeks for the next 2 years. The consultant was perfectly happy for us to start travelling again and so Gerry has begun the process of trying to get travel insurance. Fingers crossed it looks like he has found something suitable.
