Get away for… THE WEEKEND!
At Southampton’s cruise ship dock, elegant passengers emerge from a limousine as we pull up for Red Funnel’s Isle of Wight ferry. Seán says their cruise would add a few noughts to our £99 deal (which has since slightly increased) for the ferry and three nights camping.
He’s so delighted with his bargain-hunting skills it’s as if he’s stalked a stag, returning to our cave with it slung around his shoulders. But I wouldn’t swap the freedom of our home on wheels for anything.
Our first stop is Newtown Nature Reserve. The crooked town hall beside the National Trust car park functioned for a handful of people and the odd cow when Newtown was a rotten borough.
We follow the nature trail through a medieval strip field, across saltmarsh and inlets, by snowy egrets and oystercatchers staging a fly-by. At the first hide, we discover we’ve just missed seven sea eagles in flight – the shots from army territory across
