Ticket to Ryde

Nearly packed

Taken yesterday

Ferry at Fishbourne (taken yesterday)

I stopped last night in Wootton Bridge, just short of Fishbourne,  a tiny village on a creek where the giant IoW ferry now berths.  The ride to Ryde was all on cycle tracks or quiet roads, very pleasant, and passed Quarr Abbey, a Benedictine monastery.  In a few relaxed miles I was on Ryde seafront.

Quarr Abbey

Ryde's pier must be unique.  It's really three parallel piers, one for two-way car traffic, one for pedestrians, and one with a double railway line.   At the end of the pier is a ferry terminal, railway station, and car park.

Ryde Pier (and a hovercraft)

Ryde, from the pier

I tootled along the Esplanade.  On a quiet sunny morning, everything looked at its best as I rode along the front on a cycle path that led round the coast to Seaview.

Seaview

Because of my desire to stick to roads near the coast, I managed to avoid the hill to Bembridge on a bridleway, and got to see the impressive Bembridge lifeboat station instead.  Then it was payback time as I was forced by my route to climb the much bigger Culver Down, with great views back across the island and mainland, and south to Sandown & Shanklin.

Angel of the South?

Random statuette by Bembridge harbour

Bembridge lifeboat station

Down the hill and I headed into Sandown, rode along the seafront, non-stop all the way to Shanklin, where the flatness came to a sudden end with Shanklin Chine, short and very steep.  I was soon in Shanklin's tiny and impossibly twee village centre (there is a much larger, normal part of Shanklin just down the road).  

Sandown beach huts

Coast route to Shanklin

Shanklin tourist centre

It was in Shanklin that I made the foolish decision to go to Luccombe.  It's a very small village, high on a hill, with a few views of the sea as you struggle up there, and not much there to make it worth the climb.  Anyway, having put that mistake behind me, I returned almost to Shanklin, and climbed again, over the southern ridge to Bonchurch  and Ventnor.

The hills round here are the same as the ones in Purbeck - they are just interrupted by a few miles of sea.  Just as steep, except today they are bathed in sunshine instead of rain.

Ventnor is just along the cliff-bottom path from Bonchurch   It was quiet, and smelled of sewage, so I stopped at an indoor cafe for lunch.  The town is quite big but the sea front is very short due to the cliffs, so the town is spread out up the steep hill behind.

Ventnor

My chosen way out of town, a steep hill, was closed due to a landslide, so I chose another one.  They're all steep.   But in a stroke of luck, I only had to climb about 100 metres before turning onto the Undercliff Road, which I guess used to be the main road but is now blocked by bollards after a few miles .  So it's a beautiful, good quality, flat, traffic free road, and it saved me a 100m climb up to the main road along the top.  Result!

I did a few detours down to villages near the shore, nothing much to report; passed Blackgang Chine pleasure park but decided not to visit.  Instead, there was a lovely long, straight downhill towards an expansive flat plain.  Not at all like the Isle of Wight.  A few back lanes, pretty villages, and a great village shop for tea at Brighstone.   I was approaching the left hand end of the island, and it was getting late, so I phoned and booked a campsite near Totland, hoping to arrive before 6.30 ish.

Randonée signs

Approaching Freshwater

Freshwater

In between me and it was the Old Military Road, sweeping across and mainly up the white cliffs near the Needles.  Up, up,and up.  Then down! Before a lot more up.  I would have fired the military planner who designed that.

It was beautiful though, with the setting sun reflecting off the sea.  I got to the campsite, set up camp in a hurry, dumped my panniers and rushed off to The Needles, a four mile round trip.  What a waste of time.

Both The Needles and nearby Alum Bay have been turned into chargeable tourist attractions.    Alum Bay, famous for its multicoloured sandy cliffs, is now a Landmark Attraction,  I think the same firm that spoiled Lands End, and it looks very similar from the outside.  And the Needles are only visible from the Needles Battery, operated by the National Trust, or from Alum Bay.  Or the coastguard post, high up the cliff and surrounded by a wire fence.

Alum Bay

Nearly the Needles