The Wight Isle – Another Micro adventure

Where do I start. Well I guess the beginning would be as good a place as any. Friday lunchtime rolled around and I started thinking about the imminent arrival of the weekend. It had been a whole 2 weeks since my escapade to Weymouth and I had itchy feet. Where next? Only having weekends available and a limited budget meant that there were certain constraints that I would have to work within. Id been north to Shaftsbury and West to Weymouth and being on the south coast there wasn’t any South left! So I looked North for inspiration.. Southampton..Portsmouth… all large towns and sizable industrial ports to boot. Not for me, not this time anyway. It was then that I realized there was a south, I just needed to get on a ferry to access it.

My last to trips had been by myself but I decided to see if the new house mate (Omar) wanted to join me. Poor guy said yes, I don’t think he knew what he was in for at the time but he would by the end of the trip. So at 7 that night with my new tent and sleeping bag packed we set of for Lymington. Twenty miles down the coast with a strong wind at our backs meant we hit the ferry point at 9.20pm. Now any of you that have ever been to I.O.W will probably have used the ferry and you will also know what a total rip of it is. The crossing is 3.4 miles, and how much did we pay as foot passengers?? Fifteen quid! I believe that for a distance to cost related journey it works out as the most expensive in Europe. We had to wait until 10.30pm as we had just missed the previous departure.

We arrived in Yarmouth at close to Eleven and it was dark, neither of us had ever been here before and we had no idea where to stay. All we knew was that we wanted to camp on the cliffs. Yarmouth to Totland and the needles looked like another 5 miles, not that far but all uphill and into the wind. An hour later and with a mixture of walking and cycling we climbed into the tent. We had achieved our goal to be on the cliffs. Sleep came fast and easily.

Day 2: I had woken up in the night with the sound of rain bouncing of the outside of the tent. If you have ever slept in a tent you probably do what I do which is guess the weather by how much light there is. … or maybe that’s just a josh-ism. Anyway…it was sunny! bloody hell and warm, happy days. We had slept on national trust land and the view we woke up to was amazing. The main coast line stretched out before us from Bournemouth to Portsmouth. Time to get cycling.

We dropped down in to Totalnd itself before climbing the sharp rise up to Tennyson Down. This has to be one of my favorite places on the whole island. Because of the strong winds the grass is so short it wouldn’t look out of place on the ninth hole of your local golf course. You have a steady climb all the way up to the top of the Down, Where you will find at a height of 147m stands a huge granite cross commemorating the life of Alfred Lord Tennyson. This is the start of one of the best down hills on the Isle and your eyes will be watering with joy and wind chill by the end of it.

We followed the coastal path all the way to Brighstone Bay where we cut inland and traveled through the villages of Yaford, Atherfeild Green before hitting another steep climb all the way up to the Hoy Monument. It was then down hill all the way to Niton where we re-joined the coast and cycled into Ventor. Ventor to Shanklin is superb, another one of my fave’s. It was like a mini Swiss alp decent.

I have to say one thing that we noticed was how friendly everyone was, Islanders always had time to talk, give us advice and offer us a drink. One place that we experienced Island hospitality was the Smugglers cabin at Shanklin. David and Diane that run the Cafe are lovely and their food is great. I’d recommend popping in to anyone in the area, you wont be disappointed! All we wanted to do was sleep after a satisfying meal but we had to push on.

Our plan had been to get as far as Ryde and then find some where to sleep, I don’t know whether it was the food or the rest but we zoomed through the countryside. Before we knew it we were miles past Ryde and it was getting dark. Eventually we had to call it a day and find a field some where just north of Cowes.

Omar was surprising me with every mile he completed. The fact he hadn’t been on a bike in a year or two combined with his diet of bourbons and crisps made me think he was going to shrivel up and die at any moment. Sure he had had his slow periods, but wouldn’t you if you did zero exercise then a hundred mile bike ride with no training?

Day 3: A 6am start and Omar woke up with two wooden legs, he was in pain and he wasn’t putting it on. So being the man that I am I told him to get on his bike a pedal. I know, i know all heart. As you come into Cowes you will find there is a ferry from East to Central. For foot passengers it is free. I guess after they have robbed you getting on to the island they assume you wont have any money left! Although we were only in Cowes from 7-8 in the morning and it was very quiet we noticed immediately how strong its Sailing passion was. Its every where, all the shops all the cafes have some sort of sailing theme. I wold love to see this place when the Cowes race is on. Maybe I will when Icome back.

Moving further west again we travelled along the costal path, past Gurnard, Thorness bay where we headed back inland to avoid getting stuck at Newton bay. This was a very scenic little stretch of coast land. The coastal path was quite narrow at times with more than its fair share of thorn bushes. There is no other way to get round Newton bay other than to go inland, no bridges or ferries so don’t waste your time looking. After skirting the bay we found our selves at Shafleet with about 6-7 mile to go, we couldn’t believe how far we had come so fast. Shafleet to Yarmouth was a straight run and we were surprised when we saw the Yarmouth sign whip past us.

If you ever get the opportunity to go round the Island go the way we did. The wind generally blows from west to east. Although like us you will need to climb into the wind for the first few miles, once you hit the peninsula you have the wind pushing you all the way to Ventor. And believe me its by far the hardest part of the trip. The south side of the island has all the hills and once your past Sandown everything will seem like a walk in the park.

Finally I would just like to say that the Vango spirit 200 held up well and I was nice and toasty in my new Vango sleeping bag. I cant wait to try it out in more extream conditions and see if it still does the job as well.

Hope you enjoyed and please feel free to comment.

J

IOW Totland

IOW Celtic Cross

IOW Needles

OW Omar

IOW Ryde Bay