We've had a few visits to Sandham Gardens in the last few years. 

About a decade ago, it looked very different with a more basic minigolf course, an Olympic themed outdoor gym and a derelict bandstand.

In the last few years it has seen a lot of investment, which I see as a positive thing and certainly counteracts the parts of Sandown seafront that are looking, ahem, less attractive at the moment.

We had previously played our way round the dinosaur themed minigolf course (great fun and relatively easy) and raced on the go karts, as well as dining out at The Bandstand. However, we hadn't been on the bouncy nets, which are formally known as Skynets: The Big Bounce.

From what I can recall, the plan for the site was originally a high ropes course but it was changed to bouncy nets. 

The bouncy nets at Sandham Gardens are relatively expensive, but they are good fun as a one-off holiday activity. When we visited it was £14 for a child and £7 for an accompanying adult for a two hour session. On the plus side, there were a few offers, including 20% off for Isle of Wight residents and a deal for half price minigolf if you did both in one day. 

My children are getting close to the age where they don't really need an accompanying adult but I insisted that I needed to join in and we were given a safety talk by a man called Colin. 

He explained that there is a big central bouncy bit called the 'chillout zone', as well as several other areas where you can play ball games. There are then a series of slides to exit the bouncy nets.

At first, I queried whether we would actually use our full two hour session. It was good fun but we had done something similar at Robin Hill (RIP) in about 20-30 minutes.

However, the addition of yoga balls added much to the entertainment. The round nets are also bigger than those at Robin Hill, so there was enough space for games of dodgeball and piggy-in-the-middle with the other children.

My personal suggestion (which no-one is asking for) would be to add a few things for lone-bouncers, such as giant basketball hoops to throw balls through.

The slides are a curious design, as they are made from netting. On my first attempt, I went down the shortest slide and found myself shuffling ungracefully down the final two thirds, desperately hoping that no-one jumped behind me. I emerged out of breath and with an almighty wedgy, which afforded me a look of bemusement from the other parents who were sipping on their lattes and enjoying the sea air

Shortly after, Mrs Guru sent me a message to say that I must definitely not attempt the longest slide. She had heard from another parent that it was tricky and she was convinced I would get stuck.

Of course, this spurred me on to try the longest slide five minutes later.

As I approached, I saw another child trying a different technique where he actually jumped legs first into the slide rather than sitting down and sliding. This seemed to work pretty well. I briefly considered launching myself in this way. Thankfully, I remembered how old I am and the stresses that the NHS is currently facing. I gingerly sat down and took a deep breath.

To a certain extent, Mrs Guru was right. I probably shouldn't have gone in the long slide. However, all that happened was that I very slowly shuffled out of the slide and found the bottom of my jeans up round my knees. Yes, the queue behind me was "embarrassingly large" but as I pointed out at the time, learning to be patient is an important part of growing up.

After the bouncy nets, our next stop was the go-karts. These cost you £5 per car. They are pretty tame and good for primary school aged children, rather than stag dos (see Wight Karting for the latter).

Accompanying grown-ups don't pay, so I insisted that child two needed some help (Ed: there's a pattern here). On our race, child one beat us by an absolute mile. This was probably for the best, but I would like to point out it was the equivalent of Red Bull versus Haas, with our car spluttering its way round the corners.

It was getting late, so we headed home - although you could happily spend a whole day in the Sandham Gardens area with a combination of attractions and messing around on the beach. The playground is one of the best and largest on the Island (see our playground guide). It lacks the sea view you get at Gurnard, Ventnor or Appley but it's well equipped.

Anyway, we shall return to Sandham Gardens again and next time I will make sure we get the faster go-kart.

The Isle of Wight is well-stocked with short walks of about one mile.

The 1.5 mile walk from Fort Victoria to Sandhard Beach and back is one of the lesser-known routes.

We attempted this one a couple of weeks after Easter. I had previously visited Sandhard Beach on my own, during an early morning trip without any trousers.

​For the return visit, we parked at Fort Victoria. Parking is free, which is becoming rarer than spotting a red squirrel on the Isle of Wight (see our free parking guide if you are similarly annoyed by paying through the nose to park).

Fort Victoria is one of several Victorian-era forts built when Lord Palmerston became convinced that the French were about to invade. Others include Puckpool Battery and the circular forts in the middle of the Solent.

The French never did invade, so you can either see Lord Palmerston's efforts as providing a perfect deterrent or being a complete waste of time.

Either way, the Isle of Wight has been left with a series of interesting old buildings. This particular one currently houses attractions including a reptilarium, a planetarium and an imaginarium - where you can do craft activities and buy stuff. There are also two cafes, toilets and a woodland.

We were due to meet my mother and her husband, but they were running late so we had a nosey in the imaginarium. Child two spent her pocket money on a stuffed dog and I quizzed the owner about the pottery painting on offer (no, they don't have a kiln but they do varnish your artworks).

After 30 minutes of complaining about my mother being late, I stomped off and began the walk.

It is usually us that is running late, but I couldn't risk the walk getting too close to lunchtime. I also quite enjoyed smugly remarking that we had managed to get two children ready and out of the house and still arrived before them.

The walk to Sandhard Beach begins with a hard-going section along the shingly beach. Anyone training for an Ironman competition should go for a jog on this stuff.

We stopped at the Boat House, which is a nice little café right on the beach. They were still getting ready ahead of opening the following day, but a kind member of staff took pity on us and provided cappuccinos anyway. I think she could tell that we needed it.

At this point my mother arrived, giving me the perfect opportunity to say "good afternoon", even though it was long before noon. I don't think she enjoyed the joke as much as me.

The walk then continue on a smoother section of sea wall which passes Warner Leisure Norton Grange Holiday Village. There aren't railings, but for most of the way, there are steady steps down into the water rather than a huge drop. It's also fairly wide. 

About three quarters of a mile from Fort Victoria we reached Sandhard Beach. As if often the case, the beach looked completely different from my last visit. Back in the summer, the tide had been quite low and the early morning sun was dazzling. 

On this occasion, there wasn't a whole lot of beach and the wind was blowing with some enthusiasm.

My dream had been to use the barbecue stands, which are provided at Sandhard Beach (thanks to Yarmouth Harbour). I had an image of us sat round the benches whilst roasting marshmallows and sharing stories of what a great dad I am. As it happened, we couldn't get the barbecue to light in the strong wind and most of the seating was underwater.

The best I managed was to briefly light my thumb, but it didn't heat up sufficiently to roast a marshmallow.

I admitted defeat and gave an apologetic speech about it being much nicer on a sunny day. 

The children seemed happy enough to eat the marshmallows without roasting them, and we began our walk back to the car.

Not our most successful outing then, but no-one cried or fell into the sea so we've certainly had worse.

We've been watching with interest at the appearance of a new holiday resort in the West Wight called Sandy Lanes Resort (or occasionally Sandy Lane) at Atherfield. These things don't come along too often and we were excited at the thought of a new Isle of Wight seafront holiday resort with posh lodges (see our guide to the other lodge resorts on the Isle of Wight). From what I can gather, the lodges were being sold individually with the option for owners to rent them out.

We've previously written a couple of blog posts and taken Tony the Drone for a couple of flights at Sandy Lanes Resort. You can read the previous blogs here and here.

The site was previously a privately owned holiday park, which was apparently open from 1935 until 2007, and usually known as Atherfield Bay Holiday Camp. Some reports say it was a Pontins, but that isn't true as far as I can tell (thanks to Vivienne who alerted us to this much repeated bit of fake news).

Planning for a new holiday park with about 60 lodges was approved in 2016, after the land was put up for sale for a guide price of £650,000.

Estate agents began listing properties with a 250 year lease. Signs were put out the front by a company called Sandy Lane Resort Limited saying that it would have a bar, restaurant, tennis courts and a wellness centre. I was looking forward to a game of tennis overlooking the beautiful West Wight coastline and had already ironed my white tennis shorts.

From what I can remember, the resort was due to open in summer 2023. A property website called Knight Knox says it was due to complete in 2023 and mentions a company called RoyaleLife.

However, at the time of writing it is fenced off and a sign says that live in caretakers are protecting the site.

Estate agent listings for the lodges have been removed. Companies House records for Sandy Lane Resort Limited say that the accounts are overdue and that the company status is 'Active — Active proposal to strike off'.

I'm not exactly sure what this means.

Another company mentioned - RoyaleLife - 'went into administration last summer' according to a Business Desk article from January 2024. However, in its list of affected resorts it doesn't mention Sandy Lanes. It mentions 'Fort Caravan Park, Sandown' and 'IOW View, Sandown' (I've not heard of the latter).

However, there are further updates in the minutes from Brighstone Parish Council's meetings.

At the minutes of a meeting on February 14th 2024 there was a representative called Mr Brookes from "the company now funding the completion of the site". He explained that the drainage "had been laid not in the correct direction according to the plans with some drainage pipes running uphill". We had a similar issue with the waste pipe for the washing machine in our old house and can confirm that this design is less than ideal.

The minutes then continue to say:

"As several councillors were missing could either Mr Brookes or the planning agent attend the mid-month planning meeting which would be on Wednesday 28th February."

And so, representatives from the 'new ownership' returned a couple of weeks later on February 27th 2024 "​To discuss new proposals to complete the work on site and highlight unresolved issues still outstanding."

They "explained the current issues with infrastructure and buildings already installed and remedial issues required before going forward. It was explained that changes and future building to various areas of the development would be done in the future. Unfortunately, certain documents from the developers had not been received. These would be re-sent to the Clerk to forward to Councillors. Councillors declined to make any comment until they had seen the documents which included a planning report from the IoW Planning Department. To be an agenda item for the March Parish Council meeting." (I have edited this slightly as there were a couple of typos).

The draft minutes from March gave a brief update that:

"Main concerns were with building control issues raised at the previous Parish Council meeting and lighting. Cllr Alldred was working with Shorwell Parish Council to produce a draft comments response which would be forwarded to Councillors for their comment."

By the point, you have probably nodded off.

From these snippets, I think we can conclude that the company which was due to open the site is no longer involved.

I don't know the name of the new company, although there is someone called Richard Brookes at a company called Turley which offers 'expert advisory services for the built environment and beyond'. I have no idea if this is the same person as the one who attended the meeting. It could also be Richard Brookes, the 18th century physician who wrote History of the most remarkable Pestilential Distempers in 1721, but I admit that is less likely.

We don't know when the site will open, or if it will still be called Sandy Lanes Resort, Sandy Lane or something else altogether.

If you want to check for further updates, I would check minutes from Brighstone Parish Council.

My mother rarely gets much of a say on where we go on family days out. She usually receives a text at around 9am to inform her that we are going to Tapnell Farm/Mottistone Manor Gardens/Asda etc. and that she is welcome to join us.

I tell her that we will be there at 10am, and then I send her another message at 9.45am to say that we are running late and will be there at 10.30am. We then meet her at 10.45am or sometimes 11am. There is an unwritten understanding that 10am doesn't really mean 10am.

However, with her birthday approaching I offered my mother free reign to suggest her dream day out with the grandchildren. 

She came up with a plan that we would spend the day digging her garden and pulling out pond weed. She insisted that by the end of the day we would all be thanking her.

We swiftly put a stop to that ludicrous suggestion and explained that there were limits to my generous offer.

The follow up suggestion was a treasure hunt around Shanklin followed by rounders on the beach at Yaverland. This sounded much more appealing to me, so we agreed to meet at 10am.

True to form, we met in Shanklin at 11am.

What I like about Treasure Trails is that you are forced to notice things that you had previously driven past and paid no attention to. 

In Shanklin, this took us past the war memorial and a large sculpture nearby that I had never really noticed. It also took us down some pretty back streets so we could stumble across hotels and businesses and Mrs Guru could say "oh, that's where that is!"

Thankfully, the sun was shining, which made a big difference to the general vibe. Shanklin is one of those Isle of Wight towns that comes alive on a sunny day but can feel a bit dreary on a wet and windy day. Ventnor is in the same category. Of course, a bit of sunshine makes anywhere look better but seeing drops of rain pouring down an advert for ice cream is a little bit sad. Seeing families and old dears enjoying an ice cream on the esplanade on a sunny day is far more pleasant.

With the sun shining and a light breeze, Shanklin looked lovely. The trail led us along a footpath that I hadn't been down, and into a park that I had driven past numerous times but never explored (I am being deliberately vague in my descriptions, in case you end up doing the trail). 

At this point, I received the first request for lunch. We had made it to about 11.45am, which is pretty good going for us. Without a treasure hunt, the first request would have been about 11.15am.

I suggested that the treasure hunters carried on and that I would go to Co-op to get a selection of meal deals. My mother thrust £20 of Co-op vouchers into my hand that had been living in a drawer since Victoria was on the throne.

Choosing lunch is never a stress free task in our family, but I did enjoy strolling back to the car as the sun shone. I returned half an hour later with a selection of wraps, a few bits of fruit protected by plastic packaging (as God intended) and multiple flavours of smoothie that I wouldn't possibly have bought if they weren't sold as a bundle. The lady on the till said "I've not seen these in a while" as she scanned my antique vouchers.

After lunch, the trail continued onto the seafront, and delivered the money-shot of Shanklin towards Luccombe (see the top of the page). A series of cliff paths and footpath closures meant that the planned route had to be altered, but we got the general idea of where the trail was meant to go.

By the time we reached clue 11 of 19, time was running away from us. We had committed to a series of other tasks for the afternoon including fitting a shower screen and getting milkshakes from the self-service machine at Crocker's Farm near Cowes. 

I informed my mother that the remaining clues and the rounders match would need to wait a few weeks, but that we would return for the final eight clues. Luckily, I had bought some birthday flowers from Co-op, which softened the blow.

And no, before you ask, I didn't use my mother's vouchers to buy her birthday flowers. Although, I would have done if the meal deals hadn't been so expensive.

We will return to Shanklin in a few weeks to complete the trail. Hold onto your hats.

I am not generally a big user of buses.

I am ashamed of this and know that they are one of the things we need to embrace to save mankind from destruction.

However, on a normal week we just find it so much more convenient to drive everywhere. You can come and go when you want, use the vehicle as a mobile restaurant or bundle the children into the car if one of them is having a tantrum. You also don't have that frustrating moment where the bus turns left and wiggles through a housing estate for 20 minutes when it could turn right and get you to your destination in five minutes.

However, despite that long pre-amble I can wholeheartedly recommend the Needles Breezer. 

It is one of two open top buses on the Isle of Wight and was the one we took this week. A few years ago, we travelled on the Needles Breezer and Downs Breezer but child two didn't remember it all so we wanted to make it right. (It is unsurprising that she doesn't remember it, as I think she was a foetus at the time). 

On this occasion, the plan was that myself and child two would catch the Needles Breezer as part of a visit to the Needles and Alum Bay. This works particularly well, as you don't have to pay to park (a saving of £6 or £4 if you have National Trust membership). It is also convenient as cars aren't allowed on the road that leads to the National Trust's Needles Old Battery, so a bus saves you a walk of about half a mile.

One option is to stay on the bus when it arrives at the Needles Landmark Attraction, as it does a loop up to the Old Battery and then returns to the pleasure park with its chairlift, minigolf and glass blowing.

We didn't do the Old Battery, although I would recommend it, particularly if you want to justify National Trust membership for another year. You get closer views of the Needles and the lighthouse than you get from the main attractions at the pleasure park. The tea rooms and the tunnel are the two highlights for me.

Anyway, back to the Needles Breezer.

Child two is not a great traveller, so it was something of a tense moment as the bus started to move. Thankfully, she took to it very well.

We sat upstairs in the open air, which immediately transforms a bus journey into a much more interesting occasion. Branches swoop past your head, speed bumps feel like a modestly-sized theme park ride. A recording waffles on with nice little nuggets of local history. The ticket you need is called a 'Rover + Breezer' ticket, which allows you to leap on and off as you please. It allows travel on all of Southern Vectis' buses, not just the open top ones.

​I enjoyed not having to concentrate on driving and being high enough up that I could peer into people's back gardens and observe how many people own trampolines. There are also occasional moments where you realise how two landmarks sit in relation to each other, which was another little thrill for me.

Besides the Needles headland, the Needles Breezer also stops in Yarmouth, meaning it is particularly good for a day trip from Lymington (personally, I think it's a much better day trip than can be managed as a foot passenger via Southampton, as discussed in our day trip guides).

On our journey, the bus stopped in Yarmouth for about 12 minutes so we had a little walk round the town whilst I remarked how much I liked Yarmouth and would like to live there. Child two shrewdly observed that I say this every time we visit. She didn't exactly refer to me as a 'broken record' but that was certainly her tone.

Other optional stops on the route include Fort Victoria, which is an old military base with a couple of small attractions. The beaches at Colwell and Totland are also nice stopping points. Both have somewhere where you can buy a coffee.  

Our journey ended with a circle back to Freshwater Bay. The sun shone as we returned and the whole thing was bordering on idyllic. Freshwater Bay is a particularly good place to stop for an hour. There are rock pools at low tide, good views from the cliffs, a lifeboat shop with ice creams and a photographic museum/café called Dimbola that overlooks the sea.