Win a Seaside Break on the Isle of Wight, at the George Hotel in Yarmouth

Where Was I?

“Egg?” I cried as Friend handed me my sandwiches. I’d asked for an appropriate filling, hoping for some interesting hams: culatello, prosciutto — anything southern, really. Instead he’d smuggled in my least favourite ingredient.

“How is this appropriate?” I asked. Friend shrugged. “In honour of all the birds, maybe?” he ventured. “What, you’re saying there are chickens here?” I countered. “With flippers and goggles?”

I wouldn’t say the day was wrecked. But it was holed and taking on water. After all, who wants to go on a long, wiggling walk dreading what’s in their lunchbox?

Still, our starting point couldn’t be faulted: marked by a white sentinel that’s held fast against Mother Nature’s fury for 184 years. The Great Blizzard of March 1891 was probably the bleakest moment hereabouts, and we shuddered at the thought as we set off westwards. But soon our forebodings turned to wonder. This area of outstanding natural beauty was certainly living up to its designation. We loved the names on the map too: Stink this; Gammon that — there was even a porcine Nose.

We stopped for lunch not far from our final destination, a small, posh resort town above a flooded valley, 5½ miles west-northwest from our starting point (as the fulmar flies). I’d booked us a lesson in its distillery.

“Great spot,” I observed, as I opened my lunchbox near a thatched lookout post.

“What, for spotting flaskers and tubmen?” asked Friend.

“No,” I said, launching my egg sandwich over the cliff edge. “For feeding fish.”

— Sean Newsom

Last week’s prize

The answers are Beaumaris and RAF Valley. Denise Nayna of Worcestershire wins a gastronomic break for two in Somerset at Locanda on the Weir.

1 What is the name of the starting point?

2 What is the name of the resort town?