The amazing, yet faintly confusing to a dog, model village at Godshill. Ye olde Isle of Wight with the best miniature topiary outside Kew and mini thatched cottages. A total delight for hounds and humans, especially after a pint in the Taverners pub.

The Isle of Wight is utterly dog friendly, I’ve been everywhere. Sandown Chines, Priory Beach, Ventnor, St Helen’s and needless to say countless pubs along the way. The humans have cycled 54km along the Red Squirrel Trail, Cowes to Sandown and back. Reportedly this was a beautiful day on traffic free tracks (albeit lacking in squirrels, where are those little red blighters?) Elaine has also been horse riding on Bembridge beach and I’ve traipsed a lot of sand into the van.

Dogs on site, 2 pugs and me

Beautiful Ventnor…..

How could you not love the Isle of Wight when this is the zooming ground?! The stunning beach of Compton Bay, ideal for ball chasing hounds and geology fans. Whilst the humans rifled around for fossils (obviously not finding any) I trotted about and admired the glorious blue sky…..

This more than made up for being dragged around The Needles attraction park. The rocks, quite frankly, are too far away for even a sighthound to appreciate and the cafes were full of kids and dogs I wasn’t allowed to sniff. I did find the mock Needles intriguing however and it is a charity fountain so worth a coin for the humps….

Wildlife count- Red squirrels 0, badgers 1, hedgehogs 1 (seriously barked at)

Dogs on site- 11

After what seemed like a tediously long time in the planning they finally packed the van and we were off on our adventures. Redundancy can be ideal sometimes.

So here I am on the Isle of Wight ferry watching Portsmouth and the splendid Spinnaker Tower retreat into the distance. Needless to say, being Easter holidays, the boat was full of dogs and children making me bark with excitement in equal measures. I think I’m going to enjoy my year very much if this is anything to go by………