Who needs to go to Dover, when the white cliffs of Wight are so pretty? You can just make out a boat sailing past the last of "The Needles" beyond the red lighthouse.
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This picture of The Needles is taken from the building on the top of the cliff seen in the previous photo. It's an old army battery, and ages ago it used to be closer to the edge. However, when they first fired their big guns, the chalf cliff underneath crumbled away (oops!), so they relocated to the top.
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Here we all are, enjoying the views. Some may say that the smiles are to cover for the fear that the cliffs might fall away beneath us at any point. Those ancient smugglers were brave (or foolish).
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Queen Victoria also enjoyed the island views, and this is Obsorne House - basically a holiday house - where she came at least twice a year. After her death, although most of the house was re-used, some of the rooms were kept closed as a kind of family shrine, in the best royal/eccentric tradition. Now it's all open.
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Osborne House has recently been given a lick of paint, and looks good as new. You can picture the grand occasions that would've happened here. The British flag flies proudly.
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Smugglers Cove? Well.. we couldn't resist throwing in another photo of the amazing chalk cliffs. You can see the angled layers of chalk deposits. Elsewhere on the island, they've found dinosaur and other fossils in the deposits.
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