05 April 2015 Isle of wight Day 1

Easter Sunday

 We caught the 10am ferry to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth. It was a 40 minute trip with the car (tandem inside) for £60 return.

At 11am we were leaving the car in a free car park for a maximum of 5 hours, in Wooton Bridge a short drive from the ferry at Newport. We set off on the tandem under grey skies with just a hint of blue. The weather forecast didn’t sound promising but maybe we were in another island micro climate as we had quite a lot of sunshine through the day.

We followed the cycle route through Upton and true to its name it was very hilly. Our first stop was at Rosemary Vineyard where we had promised to buy a bottle of liqueur for my brother in law. Unfortunately they had run out of the blackberry one he likes but there were many scrumptious fruity drinks to choose from. There is a free tour of the winery and tastings if you so desire but we wanted to press on after some non alcoholic refreshments.

All along the hedgerows were primroses, celandines and daffodils, cheerfully yellow. These seem to encourage butterflies as we saw many brimstone (also yellow), fritillary and tortoiseshell.

We passed a line of houseboats in the sheltered harbour mostly seeming to be wooden houses built on top of boat hulls, one even made from a World War 2 motor torpedo boat.

We came into a large village, Bembridge where we had lunch at the Bakery. We had thick leek and potato soup with cream drizzled over the top and their own made rolls. The tea was speciality leaves and came in a warmed pot.

Close by is a windmill owned by the National Trust. It was built in the 1700s and was last operated in 1913. It has most of its original machinery intact and is the only surviving windmill on the island. We thought you would need to be under 5 feet tall to work here as we had to duck quite a bit. Bob went up the ladders to the top but I chickened out after the first floor. It’s the coming down backwards that’s awkward and I hate seeing the floor many feet below through the slits and gaps in the flooring. The 19^th century painter Turner did a water colour of the mill. I liked the embroidered wedding smock decorated with owl motifs hung amongst the machinery. There is an owl box to encourage owls.

We cycled past an airfield with small planes dotted across the green field. Men were dragging a glider to a vehicle that would tow it. Later we saw an air borne glider being towed by a plane -possibly the same one.

The road was closed where we wanted to go, heading for the traffic free cycle way to Brading. Instead we had to go to Sandown, past the zoo opposite the sea front with its high walls hopefully keeping in the tigers. Apparently not so many years ago tigers were led out for a stroll and swim on these beaches until health and safety put a stop to it.

The dinosaur museum comes next and it looks very modern. It is renowned for its fossil collection and has interactive displays. It was quite cold at this coast and we visited a public toilet here and I was surprised by a trapped pigeon sitting above the door of the cubicle. I wasn’t brave enough to try to get it out.

It wasn’t far till we picked up the cycle path which was rough to start with amongst the house alleys. Later it was tarmac and there were plenty of walkers and cyclists but not so many to make it unpleasant. The path followed an old train route and is now enclosed by natural space. There were plenty of pheasants in the fields and someone in camouflage was waiting with expensive camera equipment by a riverbank hole. Kingfishers were depicted on the nature billboards so there must be fish though the water looked murky with clay.

It was lovely cycling on flat paths though our mirror fell off and cracked, followed by the attachment for it and lastly my water bottle escaped, so the track had to be bumpy with tree roots. The path extended over 8 miles and crossed several quiet roads until it reached Newport. It was a short path to Wooton Station followed by a bit on the road to Tescos and then the car park was opposite near the community Hall. We had just taken the allotted 5 hours though we weren’t sure how they would have known how long we had been there anyway. We had cycled 28 miles.

 With bike in the car we drove to Brighstone for our Bistro Band B called 7. A lovely 800 year old church is opposite our window and the village has plenty of chocolate box thatched cottages.

An iguana’s footprint like a large lump of concrete sits in the bistro area and it seems like this island is quite the paleontologist’s paradise.

 We were given a lovely roast pork dinner at 6 with plenty of vegetables and fresh (Spanish) strawberries for sweet. Unfortunately the chef is usually the lady of the house who fell down stairs and broke her neck just days before we arrived so our host seemed to be very stressed about everything. He said she is staying with her mother and is in a brace for several months. He has an outdoor job, the bistro and B and B to manage on his own with occasional help from his children. It all seemed very puzzling to us and his dark tales of life here, maybe coloured by his beer drinking made us think perhaps a 3 nights stay might be too long.

Our room was very cold and the feathers on the bed made me sneeze. The church clock didn’t strike through the night, the bed turned out to be comfortable and as our room warmed up ( as well as the weather) we relaxed into this unusual B and B.