Isle of Wight Day 1

Today we played the typical tourists, After buying some lunch at Sainsbury Food we headed for the bus terminal on the Ryde Esplanade. We bought a 24 hr Rover + Breezer ticket. This allows you to ride any of the regular suburban buses any where on the island plus ride the 5 Breezer buses. The Breezers are open top hop on/hop off buses that do scenic circuits in particular areas of interest. For example the Needles Breezer starts in Yarmouth and takes in the Old and New Battery at the Needles among other sites in that area.

We first caught a regular bus to Newport. Newport is the largest town on the island and is located pretty much at the geographic centre. From there we caught a second bus that took us through many lovely villages to the south coast and along the wild coast westward to Alum Bay. Here there is a rather kitsch tourist “amusement park” with carousel, shooting gallery, cup and saucer ride, games arcade etc. Ignoring all that, there is a half hour walk out to the most westerly point on the island. Here there are two gun batteries. The New low down close to the end of the headland and the Old a little further back but much higher up. The attraction is the Needles Landmark, three white chalk stacks rising out of the water. At the end of the formation is a lighthouse built in 1859.

Alum Bay is also known for its multi-coloured sand cliffs. The sands are made of three minerals – quartz, felspar and mica, and in their pure state are white with other colours being produced through contamination by other minerals.

While we were at the Old Battery we could see rain coming from the mainland and within minutes it was very heavy. Lucky for us there was a Needles Breezer bus nearby which we jumped on but were still pretty wet. We didn’t get to see the New Battery. The Breezer took us on a scenic route to Yarmouth when we hopped off to look around. When we had planned to do this trip in 2020 we were booked into The Bugle Coaching Inn in Yarmouth so it was interesting to search it out. It is a charming old pub in the centre of the village. Unfortunately when we tried to book this time they did not seem to be doing accommodation.

Yarmouth is where we arrived on the ferry yesterday, it is beautiful small village with a huge marina and a castle built by Henry VIII in 1547, really a gun platform to protect the Solent in the event of an invasion of England by the French or Spanish. From Yarmouth another bus back to Newport and a bus that took us to the East of the island, Ventnor and Shanklin. At Shanklin Old Village we left the bus, went down to the sea and walked the Shaklin-Sandown Revetment. This is a 2 mile paved walkway between the two villages with golden sand beaches, brightly painted beach huts, great views out over the English Channel and plenty of outlets for food, drinks and ice creams. Sandown also has a pier.

At Sandown we got on yet another bus and went back to Ryde. Today we spent about five hours on busses, tomorrow it is time to do some walking. Our 24 hour ticket was issued at 9.38am today so first thing tomorrow we can take a bu, before 9.38, somewhere and walk back to the hotel. There is a Coastal Walk right around the island so will do some of that. The full circuit takes about 6 days, maybe an idea for another time.