Arrived at Allum bay just after 10am - viewed the Needles from the viewing platform and Mark took a couple of snaps before we descended the 181 steps to the beach. The cliffs here are made of multi-coloured sands and I enjoyed looking at the different shades and also hunting for pretty rocks on the stoney beach. We didn't fancy the walk back up the cliff so took the chairlift which was mildly scary as it was a bit blustery but did offer very good views of the bay. Having lost at the crazy golf on Sandown Pier I decided we should have a best of three mini-tournament and proceeded directly toThe Needles Park Jurassic Golf course where you'll be glad to know I won the round setting the score at one all... it would now all rest on the third and final round to be held at Shanklin Esplanade later in the day... more of that later. I'll bet the suspense is killing you isn't it?!
Anyway, we finish our experience of The Needles Park by having a look round the shops and buying some yummy sweets from the Sweet Manufactury. You can watch them making the sweets but we chose to just eat some instead! Picnicked in the car overlooking the bay and had a conflab about our plan for the rest of the day. Having decided that sometimes it is better not to have a plan we set off along the coast road towards Blackgang and the infamous Blackgang 
Chine. Along the way we drive through Freshwater, Compton Bay, and numerous other little villages. The scenery was impressive and weather really lovely. This I think was my favourite part of the island - it seemed more remote and rugged which is the kind of thing I go for. Sadly the camera battery died at Alum bay so we have no pictures but if you clicky the above link for Freshwater you'll get the idea. We saw a campsite in Brightstone (I belive it was this one) which looked like a great base for a walking holiday and seemed like a great place to just chill for a week.
We arrived at Blackgang Chine and took a look in the fossil shop which had a small but interesting exhibition on dinosaurs / fossils etc. Mark was initially keen to go into the park but I managed to talk him out of it as the place scares me! It's just a weird place full of eccentric attractions... I know we came here on the aformentioned school trip of 1990 as I have a picture of myself sat on a model dinosaur in particularly attractive pink tracksuit.. this is a picture that I NEVER want to re-create! Mark did however manage to wind the camera battery up for one last picture...
Following our narrow escape from the weirdyness of Blackgang Chine we continued to follow the coast road back towards Shanklin Old Village with a view to playing more crazy golf and a dinner of fish n chips. We missed the old part of town on our last visit so parked up at the top of the Chine for a look around. It is another very pretty area with more old buildings, thatched roofs, and tea shops (obviously the Olds were out in force again, this being their natural environment) and sits on the cliff above the beach and Esplanande. Having looked around a few of the shops we made our may down many steps to the beach below.
The route we took brought us out at the very end of the beach, past the Esplanade and the lower entrance for the Chine. The weather was improving all the time and the sun had his hat AND shades on by this point so I whipped my shoes and socks off and braved the cold water for a paddle. I have to admit that I didn't paddle for long but it was nice just to sit and chat and watch the sea for a while, relaxing in the sunshine and skimming stones (which btw I am hopeless at!). I could have happily sat there for the rest of the day, but we had the important deciding game of the crazy golf tournament on the schedule - to be held at Shanklin Esplanades Jungle Golf course...
This was definately the best crazy golf course of the three, with fun theming and a more challanging course. The sun had chucked his hat and shades away and donned his speedo's by this time - Mark managed to get sunburn and I was down to jeans and a vest top. Obviously I won the final round and as such am the current Crazy Golf Champion - Mark tells me the courses in Florida will be much more difficult, I think he is just jealous of my skills!
Our plan had been to have fish 'n chips in Shanklin Old Village but the shop was closed - I had heard of Fat Harry's fish 'n chip shop in Sandown so this seemed like the obvious direction to head in and also gave us an excuse to re-visit our favourite place - the IOW Zoo :o) So after struggling back up the cliff (tired feet!) and a short drive we find ourselves in the company of big moggies again!
We made a bee-line for the Ranthambore exhibit to see if we could get a good picture of Diamond (having remembered that we both have camera's on our mobiles that we could be using) but he was still snoozing so I spent another happy hour watching Zia and Zena who were both up and about. We are also treated to some chat from Sabu and right at the end of the day, just before closing, the keepers carry out part of their animal enrichment scheme with the two female jaguars (Tequila and Chiquita) - hiding meat for them to hunt for. One of these girls was found living in 
someones garage in Ireland and the other came from a travelling show that didn't want her anymore. I'm glad they have a better home now and it was very interesting watching them hunt high and low to find their dinner.
Diamond is still snoozing as we leave so we will just have to go back again one day to get a piccy of him! We were definately ready for dinner by this point and Fat Harry's doesn't dissappoint - we both go for classic cod and chips with red sauce and it went down a treat! We ate our dinner sat on a bench on the Esplanade in the sun, and followed it up with a 99 icecream (avec flake) and a final stroll along the beach.
I'm glad we went back to see the big cats and I would definately like to visit the South-West part of the island again one day - maybe for a camping trip. Really enjoyed this day and was a bit sad to be leaving the next morning.
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