Day 2 Brownsea Island

 It was raining and very misty when we woke up.  This wasn't the weather forecast for our day on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.  We had another look around Poole and were lucky enough to see Poole Bridge lift to allow some RNLI boats through.  



By the time we arrived for our ferry crossing at 11.30 it was much brighter and very warm.

We landed on Brownsea after a 20 minute crossing and chose our route starting with the south coast path.  Very soon we were on our own and couldnt see any of the others.  

Brownsea Island Pier and Castle

Brownsea Island Church

Near the church we saw Silka Deer and before too long we saw our first Red Squirrel of the day foraging in a woodland clearing.  We saw a lot more as the day went on but they were difficult to photograph.




We had lunch at a viewpoint looking towards the Purbeck Hills and continued stopping for a while at the Pottery Pier which much of the beach was made up of broken pottery, possibly from the former pottery works on the island.

Beach made up of pottery pieces

Pottery Pier

View from Brownsea Island towards Purbeck


Towards the end of our walk we visited the Nature Reserve which had 4 hides, one of which had a conservationist in who told us about the birds on the lagoon.  We were shown a Spoonbill resting at the edge of the lagoon although I would have mistaken it for a Great Egret.  Further along were hundreds of Avocets.

Spoonbill

Avocets


We returned to Poole late in the afternoon and made our way back to the hotel to prepare for our trip over to Jersey the following day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 15 St Peter Port and Grandes Rocques

Image
  It was incredibly windy overnight and we didn’t sleep well. Rain was forecast for the whole of today with strong winds turning to gale force by early evening but contrary to the forecast, it did stay dry and often sunny.  When the sun was out it was very warm even in the wind. We decided to get the bus to St Peter Port.   We first walked along the harbour and up to the lighthouse and watched the 10.35 ferry from Herm battling the waves to get into Guernsey Harbour.     We then walked some of the back streets of the south of the town to see some of the houses that are visible in the hillside from the harbour.   We first walked up Cornet Street where all the houses are old and at least 3 storeys high.   The guidebook had mentioned 26 Cornet Street as an 18 th century shop with shopkeepers dressed in period costumes but unfortunately was shut for the season.    It is also the base for National Trust Guernsey. 26 Cornet St There were some ...
Read more

Day 17 North East Guernsey

Image
  We drove the short distance up the coast to Vale and parked near the church where there was a small lake showing as a nature reserve on the map.  We went to what we thought was the entrance but it was a bird hide.  Looking over the lake we could see that there was no way of walking around.  We saw lots of little egrets, a heron, coots, moorhens and a single shelduck asleep on one leg. Little egrets Shelduck Vale Church We then walked around the nearby village and went to a garden centre which was very hidden away but had an enormous gift shop area with mostly Halloween and Christmas things. After that we went to the second largest town on Guernsey called St Sampson.  It has a very large marina and a lot of shops.  We spent about an hour walking around and then decided to find somewhere scenic to park a little further north of St Sampson for lunch and coffee.   St Sampson Harbour St Sampson Clocktower  and RNLI Offices We found a nice quiet ...
Read more

Day 14 Lihou Island and North West Guernsey

Image
  We had an email from Condor Ferries today to say we are now booked on the Saturday night sailing to Poole, so brought forward a day.   We arrive at 23.40 so have booked the Premier Inn in Ferndown for the night and will drive to Hertford on Sunday morning. Now to make the most of our extended holiday. After a relaxing breakfast, we drove a short distance along the coast to Fort Hommet and the gun casements that were added in WW2.   There were some great coastal views as well. Fort Hommet Vazon Bay rocks Fort Hommet Gun Casements Fort Hommet Vazon Bay rocks After this we drove to the causeway from where you can walk to Lihou Island which is on the north west corner of Guernsey.   The causeway is open at low tide during hours of daylight.   At the moment it seems to be open for 2 3/4  hours for 7 or 8 days then closed for 2 days.   It opened at 11:39 today and closed at 14:14.   There were quite a few people waiting.   Most of the cause...
Read more