A few years ago, Friday night became the 'dance night' at the Isle of Wight Festival thanks to appearances from Calvin Harris (2014), Prodigy (2015), Faithless (2016) and David Guetta (2017).
That's shifted a bit more recently and we've seen a mix of big names headlining on the first Main Stage night at the Isle of Wight Festival. There's also a nice mix this year of pop and rock acts. As previously discussed, I think including a fair few pop acts is a clever move as it encourages whole families to attend the festival. On Friday, that included Sugababes and Sophie Ellis Bextor. Other highlights on Friday included Human League in the Big Top, Isle of Wight band Plastic Mermaids and Pulp who headlined after previously appearing at the 2011 festival. Here are a few photos from Friday, used with permission of Isle of Wight Festival 2023:
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Thursday has traditionally been seen as the 'campers' night at the Isle of Wight Festival. The main stage is still being tidied up for Friday but the Big Top is ready. It's a clever way of encouraging people to arrive across two days rather than trying to cram everyone onto the ferries in one day.
By my reckoning, 2008 was the first year that the Isle of Wight Festival offered four nights of music. Over the years we've had some pretty big names headlining on Thursday night including The Human League (2009), Boy George (2011), Primal Scream (2012), Razorlight (2017) and one of my favourites - Wombats - in 2018. This year, Thursday night was headlined with a Groove Armada DJ Set with other acts including LF System, Oh My God! It's The Church and Lottery Winners. The final act on that list is particularly impressive since they had a number one album about six weeks ago. Anyway, here are some photos from Thursday, used with permission from Isle of Wight Festival 2023. This is just a quick blog to share a new* discount I've found with Wightlink for 15% off car ferry travel and 20% off passenger journeys. The discount won't be available to absolutely everyone but the criteria is so broad that I think it will include a huge number of visitors and residents. It is for journeys to or from the Isle of Wight and is valid for: teachers and other school staff, health care workers, carers (paid carers or someone who helps look after a relative), charity workers (and their families) and volunteers for 'any organisation or group'. It is free to sign up and took me about a minute to fill out the form. You can get the discount via these similar websites:
I signed up for the charity website as I do a little bit of volunteering (Ed: excellent humblebrag). My brother works for a charity so I also qualify that way. I wasn't asked which charity I volunteer with and I wasn't asked to provide evidence. Of course, I would strongly encourage you to only sign up if you are genuinely entitled to. *This discount may well have been available for months but it's the first I've heard of it. Why are you so excited about this?What an odd question. I'm not sure I like your tone. For a long time, Wightlink has offered 15% off car ferry travel and 20% off foot passenger travel through workplace discount schemes and things like English Heritage Membership. Many of these are in our ferry discounts guide already. However, these deals usually require you to pay for membership or do something like join the army. I considered enlisting but I doubt I'd pass basic military training, even if there was the promise of a 15% ferry discount at the end. These 'new' deals don't require you to pay anything to sign up. Who else can get 15% off Wightlink?This seems like a good time to have a quick run down of other ways of getting a similar 15% car ferry/20% foot passenger discount with Wightlink:
Are there better ways to save money on the Isle of Wight ferry?Yes, there might be. Wightlink's standard fares aren't necessarily the cheapest option, even with the 15% off deal. The Isle of Wight ferries use a 'flexible' pricing structure so they increase with demand.
I would do these three things first before you book:
There are other options - such as Wightlink's Tesco Clubcard deal and foot passenger discounts - in our guide to 40 ways to save on the Isle of Wight ferry. There are also better deals for residents if you are using the ferries regularly, which are also explored in this blog post. Most importantly, bring a sandwich and a flask when you catch the ferry. I once saw a ham and cheese sandwich for £4.40 on a Wightlink ferry and I'm still complaining about it. I always raise an eyebrow when a concert promoter tells you that they are 'nearly sold out'. Is this a strategy to shift a few tickets because they've still got 30,000 left and have spent the morning crying? Anyway, we can say with confidence that the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 really has sold out. Well, there are a few day tickets left for Friday but all the weekend tickets have gone so you will need to try your luck with the resale market. This is quite an achievement during a cost of living crisis. It's also excellent news as it should increase the chance of the Isle of Wight Festival continuing to come back year after year, unlike many other UK Festivals. As an aside, let's not take for granted that the Isle of Wight Festival will go on forever. Anyone want to reminiscence about V Festival, T in the Park or the Island's Bestival? Please consider these extinct festivals next time you complain about the line-up being too: similar to six years ago/full of people you haven't heard of because you aren't 17/full of people you haven't heard of because you aren't 56/full of people you have heard of but don't like. Here is my theory as to why the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 has sold out: 1. Bargain entry for ISlandersI've made this argument before, but if you a) live on the Isle of Wight and b) pull your finger out then the Isle of Wight Festival is extraordinarily good value. If you bought early bird Islander tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival 2023 you would have paid about £145 for the weekend including booking fees. Anyone who doesn't consider that a bargain for four days of music and camping needs to have a quick check on Ticketmaster. Gigs don't cost £5 anymore, Grandad. Some campsites cost more than £145 for four nights. An adult ticket to see Robbie Williams in Norfolk in August will cost you £85 plus booking fees. A ticket to see Pulp in Sheffield is £106 plus fees. I admit that the latter is the 'resale' value on Ticketmaster but it's the cheapest ticket I could find. Keep in mind that neither of those include camping which piles on the cost for the promoter. If you live on the Isle of Wight and waited for the lineup to come out then you would still only pay about £170 for a weekend ticket. We waffled on about this in a blog post back in 2019. 2. Keeping general admission prices downThe Isle of Wight Festival organisers seem to have taken the strategy of not significantly raising ticket prices over the last 12 years. Way back in 2011, the weekend price was £175 whilst in 2023 it had increased to £215. I can't honestly remember if the 2011 price was including booking fees but it's still a very modest increase over 12 years. Meanwhile, Download Festival was £170 in 2011 but had increased to £315 in 2023. That puts the Isle of Wight Festival a full £100 cheaper. I've simplified the argument a bit here by not including early bird deals and so on, but you get my point. Red Funnel have also been doing some very reasonable ferry fares for the Isle of Wight festival. Foot passengers can get a £17 return deal, which is about half what you would normally pay. They also did some early bird deals for those bringing car which were around £100 return. This is particularly good when you consider that the Isle of Wight ferries usually increase fares during busy times. My hunch is that this 'investment' of not emptying everyone's pockets at the first opportunity means people are more likely to come back to the Isle of Wight for a holiday at a later date. 3. Letting kids in for next to nothingSorry to obsess over pricing but it's also worth saying that the Isle of Wight Festival organisers have made the decision not to rinse parents who want to bring children. I bought a kids' weekend ticket this year for £11 which is slightly more than a trip to the cinema for us. Organisers have obviously realised that the festival's audience from the early 2000s is still keen to attend but now has the glorious blessing of parental responsibility. If you start charging adult prices for kids tickets then it will get out of reach for many people. 4. Plenty of pop in the lineupDon't get me wrong, I'm one of the cool kids. As a child, I shunned Power FM and recorded the late night rock show on Radio 1 onto a cassette. I passed around Pixies albums in high school and had heard of Wet Leg before they even existed. However, I do think that including several pop acts is a wise move as it drags in a wider audience than you will get if you just stick with guitar bands. Mrs Guru wouldn't enjoy Pulp, The Courteeners or Manic Street Preachers but she would happily watch Robbie Williams, Sugababes, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Mika, Gabrielle and Sam Ryder. Some will complain that there's too many pop acts but I can guarantee you that there'll be plenty of guitar bands thrashing out an almighty noise. On a related note, I do think the Isle of Wight Festival would benefit from a female headliner in the next few years. In the last 20 years I can only think of Fleetwood Mac as being main stage headliners with a female singer. Florence + The Machine have performed and so did Pink, but neither headlined. Amy Winehouse joined the Rolling Stones on stage but only as a guest. I wouldn't mind a big name female pop act performing, even though it's not what I sing in the shower. If the Festival can have Robbie Williams in 2023, why not have Kylie Minogue in 2024? 5. The sun always shines on the Isle of WightThis may not make a big difference as to whether a festival sells out, but good weather makes a difference as to whether people come back. I always quote the statistic that the Isle of Wight gets 500 hours more sunshine each year than London (I found that on a Met Office comparison about five years ago). You'll find claims that the Isle of Wight is the sunniest place in England, but it really depends how you measure sunshine. I won't bore you with the details (Ed: you usually do...). Anyway, I went to a couple of very wet Glastonbury festivals back in the day. It didn't completely ruin the weekend but it came close. Walking barefoot to find a toilet at 3am was a low point, as was getting back into my sleeping bag afterwards. The modern day Isle of Wight Festival has only had one really wet year out of 20. It was 2012, when Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen were in the lineup. The cruel twist is that it was the year that they changed the date of the festival to avoid clashing with the Jubilee. Other than that, the weather has been pretty decent which makes standing in a field for days on end much more pleasant. You will hear a lot of rude things about Sandown at the moment, including a suggestion that it is the Isle of Wight's 'Turd Town'. We didn't disagree with everything the Turd Towns visitor said but we felt a rebuttal was in order, without brushing over Sandown's obvious issues. Making a break for LakeI headed off for Lake at about 6.30 in the morning. This is a time of day that I once considered to be unpleasant but now quite enjoy. There is an initial reluctance to get out of bed but I could see the early sunshine coming through the window in Carisbrooke which was enough to get me moving. My plan was to park in Lake, and then walk between Sandown and Shanklin. There's not a lot of parking in Lake, but I managed to find the one unused parking space on the residential roads near to the coastal path and made a swift exit. I always fear that I will get an earful from a local resident, so I moved away from the car with the pace of a cheetah and the sheepishness of a, er, sheep. Fellow money savers may like to read our guide to cheap and free parking on the Isle of Wight. It's a thrilling read. Lake itself is - to be honest - quite a dull place but the beach is a real gem. You'll sometimes see it referred to as Dunroamin Beach. It has golden sands and high cliffs but doesn't have the crowds of Sandown or Shanklin because it's not quite so convenient. If you can't park on a residential road then you'll probably end up at the big council pay and display car park which is attached to The Heights. The main road through Lake used to have a cinema called Screen De Luxe which apparently closed in 2000 with a screening of Gladiator. One of my life's regrets is never visiting Lake's cinema, since Newport or Ryde was always more convenient. I have a memory that it had intervals with a puppet show to encourage you to buy more popcorn (comment below if you can clarify this detail). Anyway, my plan was to get some good drone photography of Sandown's Pier and then get some footage of the crumbling Ocean Hotel. The ups of SandownThe sun was glistening as I walked along the seafront towards the Pier and there was the pleasant scene of deckchairs being unfolded and cafes opening. Deckchair renters were adjusting their bumbags and unfolding their parasols. I embarked on my mission to make a video which shows Sandown to be a sunny paradise and certainly not a Turd Town. This proved very easy, since Sandown has some of the best sand on the Isle of Wight (Countryfile Magazine named it the UK's best beach in 2019). Sandown also has the Isle of Wight's last kiss-me-quick style pier. Ryde Pier, Totland Pier and Yarmouth Pier are all very attractive but do they have an Aztec themed minigolf course? Sandown Pier isn't swanky but that's not really the idea of a traditional seaside pier. There has also been some significant money invested on Sandown seafront in recent years. There's a new Premier Inn, which was much delayed by expensive 'technical issues'. It has a nice pub-style restaurant attached called Sandown Cliffs where I twice gorged myself on a mixed grill. The Trouville still looks smart and gets good reviews from customers. There seemed to be a notable number of people happily eating their breakfast as I walked past. At the Yaverland end of Sandown there's also been significant investment in the last decade. Sandham Gardens now has enough to fill half a day including the bouncy nets and the minigolf course which opened about four years ago. There's also the Bandstand which is one of our favourite places for a meal with a sea view. The elephant on the seafrontThe main problem with Sandown at the moment is the row of empty hotels on the seafront. Roofs are letting in a little more daylight than they should, windows are broken and letters are falling off signs. This feels like a real tragedy when they have prime locations overlooking such a gorgeous stretch of coastline. The most prominent is The Ocean Hotel. The Daily Star reports that it opened in 1899 and was visited by Charles Darwin. This would be a terrific nugget of local information if it weren't for the minor detail that Charles Darwin died 17 years earlier in 1882. The same report also says that Lewis Carroll was a visitor. Unfortunately, he had been dead for a year by 1899 so something doesn't quite add up. On The Wight sheds a little more light on this confusion. It suggests that Lewis Carroll visited 'The King’s Head, the gabled section of Ocean Hotel' which was extended and renamed as the Ocean Hotel in 1899. If you want to fall into a rabbit warren of local news, take a look at this summary of why the Ocean Hotel got into such a state after closing in 2012. A change of planI spent a little longer than planned farting around with Tony the Drone at Sandown Pier and at the Ocean Hotel. Time was not my side, so I gave up on my plan to visit Shanklin as well. It seemed likely that the children would be awake by now, so I headed home. Don't give up on SandownIt's hard to deny that parts of Sandown seafront are in desperate need of a bulldozer. We have gone beyond a lick of paint and a hanging basket.
But as long as the sun keeps shining and the beach stays sandy, I remain of the opinion that Sandown has something going for it. If you're convinced, check out our guide to 10 places to stay in Sandown or our guide to hotels with a sea view. I was given free tickets to Blackgang Chine, but the words are my own. A friend and I are currently working on a history of Blackgang Chine theme park. It will see the light of day once we have stopped arguing over minor details. Child one has also been helping out with our 180 year timeline and so she was particularly keen for another visit to Blackgang Chine at half term. With my recently acquired knowledge I was able to point at carbon fibre models which now live in the car park and say things like "you know, that model was originally in Smugglerland". We had ignored my own advice (arrive at 10am, do the rides on the right hand side first) and turned up about 11.30am. The park was understandably busy as the sun was shining. It was Cowboys v Dinosaurs week, which included special events throughout the day. The cowboys and the dinosaurs are my favourite things about Blackgang Chine, but under pressure I joined team Dino and showed my support with a sticker. We headed for a dinosaur show which took place behind the old buildings which now house the Hall of Mirrors and the original whale skeleton. Last time we visited at Easter, there was a small dinosaur themed space hidden round the back but it has grown in size. Several of the smaller dinosaurs now live in a nearby dinosaur walkway which is separate to Restricted Area 5. There were a couple of activities along the way before we reached the events space. Please enlighten me in the comments if you know what it was previously used for or politely point out that it's been there for years. Google Earth suggests it may have been a car park which has been gobbled up to make it a bigger space. We sat down for the lunchtime show which consisted of an enthusiastic cast introducing dinosaurs which roamed amongst the crowd. Child two sat firmly on my knee until I confirmed that the dinosaurs were staff members in costume.
Our visit to Blackgang Chine wasn't meant to be a whole day outing. We prefer to do a couple of short visits to pace ourselves. You get free returns for seven days with any ticket, so I always advise people to visit at the start of a holiday rather than the end (see our guide to money saving at Blackgang Chine). As is usually the case, this got a little extended as we worked our way round Dodo Valley, Shipwrecked, Nurseryland, The Hall of Mirrors and the Underwater Kingdom. Child one wanted to add the water slide to the list and child two wanted Cowboyland but we had other plans. We dragged them away with promises that we shall return again for further adventures, all in the name of historical research. I've not been to every church on the Isle of Wight. However, I can offer a little bit of insight for someone looking for somewhere to worship whilst on holiday. If you want to recommend anywhere in the comments section, please do. This list isn't intended to be exhaustive. Details change from time to time, so please check things like service times before making a journey. Castlehold Baptist Church, NewportWe've been to Castlehold Baptist Church quite a few times over the years. Back in the day, I went to Boys Brigade at Castlehold and made a very poor effort of cleaning my uniform each week. It is in the middle of the Isle of Wight, so you are unlikely to be further than 20 minutes away whilst on holiday. There is some good kids' work going on and plenty of children attending (last time we visited). We were once invited to write prayers on a paper aeroplane and send Prayer-o-planes flying around the church. The music is modern songs rather than hymns, but not wacky Jesus-Is-My-Boyfriend songs. There was a 90s and noughties vibe to the songs, with an occasional vintage barnstormer for good measure ("We are marrrrching in the light of God, we are marrrrrrrrching in the light of God etc). Don't expect lots of liturgy. They've got a balcony at Castlehold where you can hide away or you can sit downstairs if you are more inclined towards a long chat afterwards. We've always found people at Castlehold to be friendly. There's a big pay and display car park nearby on Drill Hall Road or check out our guide to free parking on the Isle of Wight for more ideas. Castlehold usually meet at 10.30am on Sundays. It is sometimes known as Newport Baptist Church. St James' Church, RydeMy brother often visits St James' in Ryde when he is on the Isle of Wight. I went a few times many years ago, but haven't for a long time. I would say it is towards the Conservative Evangelical end of things (please correct me if I'm barking up the wrong clerical tree). It describes itself as 'Evangelical Anglican' and is 'part of the Anglican Mission in England'. There is kids' work at St James' which is split into three age groups. Sunday services are currently at 10.30am and 6.30pm. Carisbrooke Priory, near NewportI have a family connection to Carisbrooke Priory, so wanted to give it a mention. It is a non-denominational 'house of prayer and Christian healing' which was home to nuns until the 1990s. They don't have a Sunday service, but they sometimes hold a Thursday service at midday (check the website). Carisbrooke Priory is also a tea rooms so you can combine your faith with your love of home made quiche. There are gardens to explore as well as a chapel, cloisters and other curiosities. True Vine Church, NewportI've not been to True Vine Church in Newport, but it is pretty active with Youtube streams, social media posts and other modern stuff going on. It has the added novelty of being held in Newport's former cinema building. I have fond memories of watching Goldeneye there in 1995. I would put True Vine in the Pentecostal/Happy Clappy category of Isle of Wight churches based on the music and the presence of flag waving. The website says that 'the majority of our church stand to sing if able, but you can dance, clap, wave flags, raise your hands or whatever feels natural to you'. As I said though, I've not actually been to True Vine and may have caused great offence. A lot of people from True Vine were also involved in launching a new Christian festival on the Isle of Wight called Lionheart Festival. It meets on Sunday mornings at 10.30am and has groups for children. Catholic Churches on the Isle of WightI've not been to any Catholic Churches on the Isle of Wight, but I wanted to mention a few as a gesture of ecumenical love. St Mary's Catholic Church in Ryde, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Shanklin and Saint Thomas of Canterbury in Newport all have lots of reviews on Google reviews which is a good sign that they are active. The reviews can be split into two categories. Some are commenting on the services ('you can feel the presence of our dear Lord') whilst others are commenting on the state of the building ('lots of damp'). Historic ChurchesIf your interest is in church architecture and history, then there's an excellent selection on the Isle of Wight. You will find some of these don't hold weekly services as vicars are shared out between churches. You may find a sign saying something like 'we meet on the third Sunday of the month, unless it's a month ending in R or during Lent'.
Interesting old churches on the Isle of Wight include:
Priory Bay Hotel is in an absolute stonking location, with one of the best Isle of Wight beaches on its doorsteps - yet it has been empty for seven years now. The beach has a special place in my heart (Ed: get a grip, man). It was our second favourite beach growing up (Compton Bay was first) and we would have been there more often if it had been slightly closer to Carisbrooke. I've been Googling Priory Bay Hotel sporadically and thought I would share the latest update for those who haven't seen it themselves. Here's a potted history of the last decade, including an update from the new owners last year. The Closure of Priory Bay HotelBack in 2016, Priory Bay Hotel went into administration and went up for sale. It had been a pretty posh hotel for a long time and featured in our guide the best posh hotels on the Isle of Wight when we started this website in 2013. According to the Caterer magazine, Priory Bay Hotel had been owned by the founder of the New Covent Garden Soup Company. This has no real relevance but my mother enjoys reading little details like this. Aria Resorts
The photos I took in summer 2020 aren't great, but I'll share them anyway:
A dramatic turn of eventsI may have overdone the headline here, but the next developments were quite dramatic in my mind.
Getting to Priory Bay has always been difficult, unless you are staying in the hotel. It requires a walk from one of the adjacent beaches and is easier at low tide. On the issue of access, the new owners now say that "it has been necessary to install boundary fencing along a section of Bridleway R84, the primary purpose of which is to safeguard the health and safety of the public throughout the construction process. We will also be implementing a signage strategy to warn any members of the public who might stray from the public rights of way on the coastline". The website continues to give further details on the access issues. Anyway, it is great to see something happening at the site! Best of luck to the new owners - let's hope it can re-open soon. I've recently discovered a fairly active Solent car share group, which I felt was worth a quick blog post. Potentially, it offers the holy grail of ferry travel - free journeys to and from the Isle of Wight. The group has well over a thousand members, so my ignorance of its existence does rather challenge my (self-appointed) status as the Isle of Wight Guru. If you know of other similar groups, please give them a mention in the comments. How does it work?Wightlink and Red Funnel both charge the same for taking a car on their ferries, regardless of the number of passengers. That includes people carriers, so you pay the same for taking seven people as just one. As a result, some people have started offering up the unused spaces in their car for a ferry. Typical posts look like this: 2 spare seats in our vehicle today on the 4.30pm from southampton Other posts are people asking for a lift: Anyone travelling Portsmouth to Fishbourne this Sunday late afternoon that I can hop in with please? The likelihood of a lift being available on the day that you are travelling is relatively small but there is more likely to be a match if more people get involved. Most posts are quite last minute, but this isn't a problem for foot passenger journeys. Travelling as a foot passenger to or from the Isle of Wight is generally the same cost regardless of when you travel, whereas booking a car varies a lot depending on how far in advance you book. Most users on the group seem to be Isle of Wight residents, rather than holidaymakers. If you do travel to the Isle of Wight without your own car, then you may want to read our guide to public transport. A disclaimerOf course, there are some risks associated with getting into a stranger's car (see Rutger Hauer in The Hitcher for Exhibit A). I'm not going to recommend you try this. Definitely don't try it. It's a terrible idea. More advice on the Isle of Wight ferryWe've written lots of waffle about the Isle of Wight ferry. Some would call it a hobby, others would say it's an addiction. Let's not quibble. Guides include:
I was given free tickets to Blackgang Chine, but the words are my own. Our visits to Blackgang Chine are best described as militaristic. I take on the role of Captain Mainwaring and tell the platoon in which direction they need to be walking. At first, Mrs Guru felt this was a little over the top but I am convinced it is the only option to avoid the day spiralling out of control. The alternative is to say "where shall we go next?" to a group of children with differing desires and interests. This always leads to 1) an argument 2) public embarrassment and 3) empty threats about ice cream not being available later. On our first visit to Blackgang Chine of 2023, we were joined by my brother's family so Captain Mainwaring was in a particularly bossy mood. Start with the ridesBlackgang Chine is a mix of rides which you queue for and imagination type stuff which you wander round at your own pace. My advice is to arrive at 10am and head straight for the rides. There's a golden hour at the start of the day when queue lengths are short, even on a busy day. We were at the waterslide by 10.10am and managed to squeeze in three slides with a wait of only a couple of minutes each time. Child two sat it out, but child one whooshed down with aplomb. You might spend the rest of the day with a soggy bottom but it's worth the risk. Dinosaurs, Pirates and Sea CreaturesI didn't have the stomach for further rides, so I declared that it was time for the dinosaurs of Restricted Area 5 - which are perhaps my favourite attraction at Blackgang Chine. Visitors who last came to Blackgang Chine when Thatcher was in power will be surprised to read that the dinosaurs now move. Fear not though, some of the original carbon fibre models are still there as well. They can still be clambered on and the landing when you fall off is now slightly softer. Dodo Valley was next, which I would put into the 'charmingly quirky' category of things at Blackgang Chine. Other curiosities - such as the Weather Wizard and the Triassic Club of dining dinosaurs - are no longer at the park, but there is still plenty of weird stuff to enjoy. My tough schedule went a bit wonky at that point because someone needed the toilet. A couple of stray children started playing on the pirate ship and squirting water at strangers. I considered putting a stop to this unplanned nonsense until Mrs Guru gave me a look which suggested I might want to chill out a little. Singing cats and crooked floorsWe ducked briefly into the Musical Pet Shop, which confirmed for me that Blackgang Chine still has an oddball charm about it. My brother found the cacophony of noise a little much and looked like he needed a lie down. A few minutes later, I moved things along and ventured into the Crooked House. This has had an update since your school trip in 1996 with the curious mannequins being replaced with more cartoonish characters. Check out this video if you want a reminder of what the previous occupants looked like. Sea creatures and CowboysNext up was the Underwater Kingdom, which was added to Blackgang Chine in 2017. We like this area, particularly the giant whale. Child one suggested that it could do with a playground to make it last longer, although it does have a sunken ship on its side which can be climbed through. We then made our way to Cowboyland, which competes with the dinosaurs as my favourite part of Blackgang Chine. This is based on a combination of nostalgia, the views of the cliffs and the gravestone puns which are scattered around (Blackgang Chine is excellent at hiding little jokes for parents to find). I had some sympathy for the enthusiastic Cowgirl who was belting out tunes in Cowboyland. All was going well until the rain appeared, prompting the gathered crowd to disperse and take shelter in the saloon. After lunch, it was time for the maze and the children's barrel ride. I also dug into my pockets and paid £1 for a water firing game, since child two didn't want to go on the ride. This is very much unlike me, as I prefer to cling onto my pennies once I'm inside an attraction. It turned out to be a highlight, with several people getting drenched for 25% of the cost of the Radio Times. The Ride Formerly Known As CliffhangerWe then went on the Shipwrecked ride, which was just about at the limit for my weak stomach. Nearby, Blackgang Chine's rollercoaster - Cliffhanger - was dismantled and disappeared in 2022 after serving for 17 years. According to Wikipedia, the ride moved to Margate and is now called the Rock 'n Roller. There's currently a sign saying that they are planning something to replace Cliffhanger. This began a debate amongst us about what should be Blackgang Chine's next investment. Child one and I decided that it should be a free-play arcade/gaming museum. A couple of dozen machines would be presented in chronological order telling the story of gaming through time from the 1980s to the 2020s. At one end you would have a Space Invaders or Pacman arcade machine whilst at the other end would be a two player Mario Kart Arcade GP machine or a motorbike racing game. Everything would be free to play on and a holographic dodo would tell you random facts about how Pacman was based on a pizza with a slice missing. It would be particularly appealing to older children who could be left to play for hours (for free) whilst younger siblings went to Fairyland. We are currently debating whether it should be called Free Play City, Arcadorama or The Museum of Fun. Anyway, I digress... ExtinctionLegs were getting weary so it was nearly time to leave Blackgang Chine. It was at this point that my brother casually announced that he would like to go on the new ride - Extinction.
I made it quite clear that I would not be joining him. A few years ago I went on a rollercoaster on a stag do and was forced to spend the rest of the day sitting under a tree whilst groaning. Of course, this meant that I shifted from being Captain Mainwaring to Sergeant Wilson ("Do you think that's wise, Sir?"). My brother/Corporal Jones ignored me and joined the queue for the ride. Extinction has two queues. You can either join the 120 degree queue which doesn't go over the top, or the 360 degree queue which goes the whole way. I am told that when it first arrived, it went over several times but has now been altered to just do one full loop. I was sort of hoping that my brother would get off the ride looking pale, but he just said "that was a nice view" as if he had just climbed up to a viewpoint. A few days later, I returned to Blackgang Chine on my own for a night time launch evening for Extinction. At first, I declined the opportunity to go on the ride. Eventually, they offered to run the ride at a specially adapted lower height for any nervous children who wanted to give the ride a go. I gingerly raised my hand and climbed onto Extinction along with a nine year old girl. What a brave boy eh? |
Isle of Wight Guru's BlogTales of Isle of Wight days out, attractions and ferry discounts from a Wightophile. This site uses cookies - see our privacy policy. Ads & links in bold may give us a small payment from the seller, at no cost to the buyer. However, this never affects our views - if we like it, we recommend it. Archives
May 2024
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