Isle Of Wight Coastal Path : St.Helens To Fishbourne
| Goodbye Old Friend | St Helens Beach | The Solent From Seaview |
After being blessed with wall to wall sunshine pretty well all week, the weather changed overnight and we got very little sleep due to high winds and heavy rain. To compensate we bought cooked breakfast before we decamped and then said goodbye to our faithful 8 year old tent, which we decided to retire after a summer of patching up and mending. That was one of the best £35 I have ever spent, it has done countless festivals and walking holidays with us including Hadrians Wall, Snowdonia, the Lake District and abroad to Spain, Germany and Slovenia.
| Seaview | Tower At Puckpool Point | Portsmouth From Ryde |
Fortunately the weather cleared up before we started walking and the day turned out to be very pleasant but not as hot as the previous days. There was not much sight of the sea for the first few kilometers but a combination of woodland and open countryside took us back to the seafront at Seagrove Bay. After passing through Seaview it is a flat seaside walk into Ryde pausing for coffee at Puckpool Point. We picked up some sandwiches in Ryde and got showered by the hovercraft ferry service blasting off by the pier, along which we saw some of the old London Underground trains running.
| London Underground On Holiday | British Hovercraft Corporation AP1-88 | Old Quarr Abbey |
A fairly easy uphill walk out of town and through shaded woodland took us to Quarr Abbey where we ate lunch surrounded by archaeologists excavating the ruins of the old site. The buildings of the new abbey are very impressive and only a short distance from our final destination, the ferry terminal at Fishbourne, where boots were kicked off and feet aired along with a celebratory coffee.
| New Quarr Abbey | Our Ride Back To Portsmouth | Sailing In The Solent |
| Traffic In The Solent |
