July, 2004
We wanted to go somewhere nice but not too expensive for Storme's birthday, and lacking any magnificent inspiration went back to the Isle of Wight. But this time we stayed in a castle.
Unfortunately our room didn't quite live up to the exterior: it was about eight feet across, and we couldn't find the luxurious four-poster bed that the promotional material had promised. At least it had a good restaurant and a decent bar. There was also live music in the evening, so we can heartily recommend the Ryde Castle hotel to fans of Celine Dion.
After some shopping in Ryde, we headed off to the Isle of Wight zoo -- so in a break from tradition we have a big bunch of random animal photos. But don't worry, these photos are slightly different from last time when we visited the bird sanctuary, because the zoo specialises in lemurs and tigers.
It turns out that lemurs, especially ring-tailed lemurs, are cute as hell. They prowl around with their little stripey tails held high, they play mischievous tricks on the keepers, they make cute little mewling sounds, that sort of thing.
Same with jaguars. I guess this is due to the alleged tendency of big cats, being huge powerful predatory carnivorous animals, to kill or maim people who get too close, hence the rather excessive safety precautions.
This isn't a monkey but I guess it also likes the camera. Although probably it would like the camera to go away while it figures out how it's going to get down from this block.
This monkey is not only photogenic, but also curious about the stuff lying on the ground outside its cage. Unfortunately we were too slow to get a photo of it reaching out to grab stuff.
Despite all the cute animals, we eventually left the zoo and headed off to a maize maze we'd heard about. The assistant at the tourist information centre seemed bemused that anybody would try to get to the maze without a car, but figured out the bus routes for us anyway.
The first part of the maze challenge seemed to be finding the maze. But after a few false starts, we eventually found the entrance to the correct farm, walked half a mile down a dusty road, then walked about the same again across a huge empty field -- parking space for a couple of thousand hypothetical cars.
We had finally arrived at the portal to the maize maze! Would we ever get out alive? Would we survive with only a bottle of water and a Calippo each? Would we regret not putting on sunscreen?