Introducing Ernest

A couple of months ago the Baboon HQ laptop decided to stop working properly.  I took pictures of our new baboon, Ernest, but did not do the blog to introduce him. So, now we have the new Baboon HQ laptop (awesome), I would like to introduce Ernest Baboon, who joined Baboon HQ in June.

We took Ernest for a walk to Fishbourne and he stopped off for a rest outside the church of Holy Cross at Binstead.  This is a 13th Century church.  I hope Hurley is reading this blog, because he will see that Ernest is a cousin of his baboon, Boise.  We called him Ernest after our person's grandfather.

This was Ernest's first visit to the countryside and he loved the thatched cottages in Binstead.

Of course Ernest is a baboon so swinging in trees is a favourite pastime.  This is the wood between Binstead and Quarr.

Ernest had a look at the old ruins of Quarr Abbey, it was destroyed by Henry VIII when he dissolved the monasteries in England.  The monks went to Belgium to escape from the persecution of Catholics, and did not come back for 400 years, when they built the new abbey.  Ernest did not visit the new abbey on this occasion, as it was a Sunday and the monks would be praying.

By the time Ernest got to Fishbourne he was quite tired and rested on the seat under this ancient tree.

Ernest had a look at the sea at Fishbourne, you can see the mainland behind him.

Before coming home Ernest had a final swing in a tree at Fishbourne.

Ernest is enjoying being a Baboon HQ baboon and is taking a full part in Baboon HQ life.  He is a great chap and we enjoy having him living here.

Baboons, monsters, ice cream and scooters!

Harry Baboon has had a busy day!  He gets to go out quite a lot because he is a good poser!

He started out at Yarmouth Harbour, where there were lots of very expensive yachts around today.

Next he walked down the disused railway that he has often walked down, to the causeway at Freshwater.

He crossed this very big field, to the golf course on the top of the hill, over Freshwater Bay.  Harry doesn't stop there for photos, golf balls are best avoided!!

After walking around Freshwater, he took a loop back towards Yarmouth.  He saw these passion flowers.  He wondered whether they had landed from outer space.

Into the woods and Harry did the normal baboon climbing activities.  This is a very pretty wood that takes us back towards Yarmouth.

Back at Yarmouth Harry thought it was time the Lifeboat needed inspecting.

Harry also reacquainted himself with this creature, that ate Yarmouth pier.  I think posing in the teeth is above and beyond the call of duty.  Brave lad!!

Back in Ryde, Harry felt it was time for ice cream.  He went to the very nice ice cream parlour on the harbour.  He chose the lemon meringue flavour!!  Yummy!

That gave Harry the energy to check out the scooter rally in Ryde.  It happens every August Bank Holiday weekend, people come with their scooters, talk to each other about all kinds of scooter interesting facts and drink lots of beer.  It is a fun festival.  Harry saw a large number of scooters.

Harry chose this scooter to ride.

It is so smart and shiny and a brilliant colour!

After that Harry felt it was time to put his paws up back at Baboon HQ!  A tiring but fun day.

Historic Sandwich

In the spirit of the harmony that exists between Baboon HQ and Lion HQ, Jackson Baboon (aka Mini-Kolo) and Lawrence Lion (the newest lion at Lion HQ), when on a trip together.

Like all trips to the mainland, the trip began with a breakfast muffin on the car ferry.  Lawrence enjoyed that aspect of his first trip very much.

We drove to Kent and started by visiting Deal.  Mini-Kolo met this native American.  He was surprised to see him in Kent, and they got on well.

After visiting Deal we made our way to the neighbouring town, of Sandwich.

This is a very old town, one of Britain's Cinq Ports.  Lawrence had never been anywhere so old.

We stayed at the highly recommended Bell Hotel in Sandwich.  They have a great restaurant, and following fish and chips for dinner Mini-Kolo had a tiramsu!!  He really enjoyed that.

I think we have noticed that Lawrence is most keen on breakfast, he found these croissants in the dining room.

Mini-Kolo found some interesting luggage in the foyer.  He wondered who had left it behind!

Slightly more concerningly, he also found a murder kit in the reception area.  It looks as though he has been hit on the head with the candlestick!!  Oh dear, who dunnit??

Before we left we went for a stroll around Sandwich.  Lawrence was really pleased to find these bread hedgehogs in a market.  Don't you think he looks a bit like them?

After that we drove back to Portsmouth, and went on the car ferry again.  The boys enjoyed their adventure very much.

Aboo at the End of the Line

Today Aboo Baboon went for a walk.  He started at Totland, on the west of the island, and strolled, in a leisurely way, along the seafront to Colwell Bay.  On the way, after about five minutes, Aboo felt it was time to stop for a rest.

The little white speck you can see behind him is the lighthouse at Hurst Castle, that is attached to the mainland by a sand spit.  It is one of Henry VIII's coastal defense castles.

After Colwell Bay Aboo walked along to Fort Victoria Country Park, which is a climbing haven for baboons.

Anyone who has seen any of Aboo's previous blog posts will be familiar with his laziness.  When he reached the fort he decided to have a rest on this friendly dolphin's back.  I think Aboo thought the dolphin would give him a ride but he was out of luck there.

Back in the wood, this chap is familiar to most of our blog readers, most of the Baboon HQ guests have been introduced to him.  He lives in the woods in Queen Victoria Country Park.  However, Aboo is the first one to try to pinch the gentleman's cup of tea!!  Come on Aboo, lunch is waiting for you, leave the gentleman's tea alone!!

Further along and Aboo met this giant newt or salamander, near to a pond.  He is pretty big, but Aboo was not afraid and he got a ride on his back.  Finally someone gave Aboo a ride!!

Ah!!! lunch, the famous End of the Line quiche and salad!!  Surely Aboo couldn't eat all that!!  Oh yes he could!!

Henry from Lion HQ has a day out!

As you all know, Baboon HQ shares premises with Lion HQ, led by Leroy.  Today Leroy's brother Henry went for a walk.

Henry started at Quarr Abbey, where he stopped to chat with the piglets.  They are very sweet, their mother keeps a close eye on them, as they are still quite small.

We walked towards Fishbourne, where the car ferry comes in, but we didn't stop there, we set out to walk further.

Henry was happy to meet this much bigger lion, he was not scared as the lion seemed friendly.  To be honest, this lion doesn't do very much!!

We walked around in a loop up a country lane, past a holiday camp and up to a very old church.  We didn't stop for many photos as it started to rain.  However, Henry was surprised to find this.

A basket of vegetables and melon, in the middle of the countryside at Blackberry farm.  The produce and eggs they were selling looked delicious.

We stopped for lunch back at the abbey.  Look what Henry found there!!

That's more like it!!  Quarr Abbey beer!!  Henry is a bit young to drink, but he thought it looked good.

A brief encounter

The pictures in this blog are not very good but we are thrilled to have them.  It is a short blog.  There was one thing that the Minis had set their hearts on seeing before they left us.  It is something very difficult to find, let alone get pictures of.  Now they have seen this, so after a trip to the university to meet a Twitter pal, they will leave, having had a satisfactory experience.

We took the boys to a secret location, where they had to be very quiet and look upwards into a tree and wait.

OK, look very carefully and see the fluffy tail.  That is a red squirrel!!  These are the native British squirrel, they can only be found in a few places in England now, the island is one of them.  Most years we never see one.  Yesterday the Minis saw two!!  One would have been easier to photograph, but we didn't have the camera ready.  This one sat for a while staring at us.  They are much shyer than the grey squirrels that we see on the mainland.  The red ones survive on the island because we can keep the grey ones off, so they don't destroy the habitats.  They don't have money for ferry tickets!!  You have to be very patient and quiet to see these.

The Minis are very happy to have seen them.

The Minis are still here

The Minis will be leaving us very soon, to go to Berlin.  We have had a great time with them and really enjoyed their stay.  We wanted to give them a couple more adventures before they leave.

On social media trolls have a bad reputation, but there are nice trolls as well and the Minis went hunting for them, and they hoped they might see some red squirrels as well.

The walk got exciting quite quickly when they met this large, friendly dragonfly.  He told them where to go to find the trolls.

It didn't take long to find their first troll.  You can see how friendly this one is, as he allowed them to climb on his face, to pose for photos.

A bit further on and the Minis found that they were also on a trail where they might see red squirrels. We told them not to get their hopes up too much, as these chaps are very shy and seeing one here was unlikely.

Not much further on, and another friendly troll!!  This one told them they would find something surprising if they kept on walking the trail.

He was right, a bit further on and there was a deserted station platform, where somebody appeared to have left their suitcases behind.  The Minis found they were a good place to rest.

There was also more information about the trail.  This rather jolly troll gave them more information about trolls and red squirrels.

They went back the same way, saying hello to the friendly trolls and dragonfly again.  They didn't see any red squirrels but they were pretty satisfied with having met such nice trolls.

We had lunch at a garden centre, where we met this giant character.

He knows how to take it easy!  We hope the Minis will see a red squirrel before they leave, this week we will take them to somewhere where it is slightly more likely.  We also want to take them to the university to meet another Twitter pal.  Finally they will go to Germany.