Brownsea Island - 19 June

Today we went to Brownsea Island! It's been a long, long time since I was there... in fact, I think the last time I was there I was a Venture Scout on an overnight camp, and it was seriously the worst night of my life. So unbearably cold. So windy. Somebody else's tent actually blew away from over them in the middle of the night. I just remember being utterly miserable, and actually praying for the night to end! We were walking up to the Scout Stone on the island which commemorates the first ever Scout camp, held on Brownsea in 1907, and we walked past the campsite and I recognised it, and all the horrifying memories came flooding back!

Apart from that, we had a lovely day. The kids were very excited to be on a boat... their first boat ever, they said.

Waiting for the ferry on Poole Quay

Once we got off the ferry, we paid homage at the Scout Stone - future scouts included - and walked all over the island.

We saw a deer, peacocks, peahens with babies, chickens (totally random, wild chickens running around, but I think they are descendants of farm animals abandoned when the island was evacuated in the 1930s), and actually a red squirrel! Brownsea is one of the only places where native red squirrels survive, and although I've been there before I'd never seen one. So that was pretty amazing!

We finished the day with fish and chips for dinner. They said they'd been in England long enough and didn't want to wait anymore. It didn't disappoint. I think I gained 5 pounds....