I.O.W. Weekend

21st - 24th September 2007

Friday 21st Sept we started off with our friends Claire and Simon with John and Loraine following down to Portsmouth for the ferry crossing. The ferry was a little late in leaving so when we got to the Isle of Wight we had a bit of trouble trying to find somewhere that was still open for lunch. Anyway we found somewhere and had a lovely lunch then made our way to the hotel which is a lovely hotel with beautiful gardens.

Dinner in the evening was really good. Some of the portions could have been a bit bigger but the quality was good. We found out after that their chef had died at Easter and they could not get hold of an agency chef so the proprietor Matthew was doing the cooking and he was ill as well, so he did his best.

Saturday was a trip to the IOW Zoo/Tiger Sanctuary where we met up with members of the IOW JEC region. The Zoo supplied a cooked lunch for everyone before we moved off to Osborne House. We had our own parking area and the house was quite impressive with beautiful gardens and beautiful views over The Solent. It was said that Queen Victoria choose that particular spot so that she could keep an eye on her fleet. The evening meal was formal with a raffle and we all had a good time and we were again joined by the Isle of Wight region members.

Sunday we went to the Isle of Wight steam railway at Havenstreet and met up with the Isle of Wight members again. We had a lovely buffet lunch which was laid on for us. With the Isle of Wight members there were a total of 18 Jaguars in our own area by the railway line. We had a trip on the railway from Havenstreet to Wootton back to Smallbrook Jct and back again. We again had a lovely meal and plenty of drink in the evening (as usual).

Monday, it was time to head back to the mainland so we stopped off at the Isle of Wight Pearl outlet then off to Butterfly World then stopped off for some lunch at the Sloop Inn by Wootton Creek on the way back to the ferry.

I think it was a very successful weekend and enjoyed by all and on behalf of everyone I would like to thank Phil for the organisation that has gone into arranging this weekend.

Angie