Final island of the year?

 

Paddling pool - Ventnor

Our hectic couple of months drew to a close with a trip across the Solent to the Isle of Wight at the weekend. We’ve been talking about going for literally years - but had always been deterred by the cost of the ferries over when looking at taking the car. More recently though we watched a Vlog from a YouTuber we like - Steve Marsh - where they just went over for a day trip and explored a bit using public transport, and for the first time we realised how doable the island was in that way - we researched a bit more and then promptly booked a weekend there! 

We opted for travelling down to Portsmouth on Thursday night after work - I hopped on the tube to Waterloo to meet MrEH, then it was the train down before dropping our bag off at the very conveniently situated Premier Inn and then a bit of a pub crawl organised by our good pal Graham with a couple of other friends as well. Lovely to see people, and to be introduced to some new pubs with some really tasty beer. After breakfast the following morning we made the short walk to Southsea for the Hovercraft to get across to Ryde. We had chosen the Hovercraft for its ability to get us across in 10 minutes, which was slightly scuppered by the poor weather conditions meaning a trip across at well below normal speed and a late departure to boot! Even allowing for that though it still felt like a really exciting and different way to travel - we'll absolutely be doing it again!

The Needles from Alum Bay

The local buses on the Island are excellent, and the 48 hour tickets we bought for just under £20 each proved to be great value as they let us ride any of the local bus services. We quite rapidly realised that almost wherever you go means routing via Newport, but that wasn't a problem, and having dropped our bag off at the hotel for the next two nights (in Sandown, right on the seafront) we headed off across to Alum Bay and the Needles - somewhere I have seen many times from the mainland but never of course from the island side! Not the greatest of weather conditions unfortunately with strong blustery winds, and we didn't linger there long before getting a connection back to Yarmouth and finding a pub! When we came out and headed along for a walk up the pier (£1 donations requested towards the upkeep) the weather turned even worse, and having got soaked we rapidly decided that the bus back to the hotel was the best option! Events took a slightly bizarre but very welcome turn after that, when the chap in the seat in front on the bus suddenly turned round and addressed us both by name...turned out that it was a friend from over 20 years back who we literally hadn't seen since 2003! Really lovely to catch up, and we ended up spending the evening in the pub with him too, catching up on all the news! He also let us know that there was an event running over the weekend called "Wightrider" organised by the Isle of Wight Bus & Coach museum, and involving somewhere around 70 vintage buses running round the island for passengers to use free of charge, which seemed like an added bonus!

Saturday however was designated as a "train day" with first the Island Line with its refurbished underground trains, and then the Isle of wight steam railway. First stop was Shanklin which we were both utterly charmed by - we did a quick circular walk involving the main high street, down the steps by the Chine, then back up again on the Cliff lift before returning to the station - and then through to Ryde for the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted at The Chocolate Apothecary…

…formerly a chemist's shop, and still with its internal fitments remaining, a really  beautiful environment and we were delighted to sit in and enjoy our drinks and the ambience. A loop up to East Cowes, across to West Cowes via the "floating bridge", and then back to Wootton Station at one end of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and a Steam Train ride on to Havenstreet for the Beer Festival. A small but good selection of well kept beers, although we weren't there for long we thoroughly enjoyed what we had. Back onto the train through to Smallbrook Junction, changing there to the Island line back to Shanklin, and a bus on to Ventnor to enjoy another quick beer and another short circular walk as the light faded, before heading back to Sandown and back to the pub of the night before - no food served there but they were happy for us to take in a takeaway and even supplied plates and forks. 

Looking towards Sandown

Sunday was our last day on the island, and we knew having the bag with us for part of the day was going to complicate things a bit, so we made the most of our time by leaving it at the hotel for the morning. We were able to catch one of the Vintage Buses down to Shanklin, and enjoyed a bit more wandering there before walking back along the coast to Sandown to collect the bag. Unfortunately there had been a big fire in the town overnight (in a derelict building) meaning that buses were all disrupted - fortunately on both occasions helpful locals let us know and confirmed where we needed to go instead of the usual stops! Another vintage bus ride through to the Museum itself at Ryde, and we were able to buy a programme - we felt that the £10 was well spent to support the event allowing for how much we had enjoyed seeing and riding on the various buses! Our last few hours were spent exploring Ryde a bit more - a delicious ice cream sundae from a kiosk on the seafront, MrEH had another hot chocolate although that was too rich for me after the ice cream - I had tea instead, and we even tracked down one of the buses that looked like it could have taken us all the way home...! 

1951 AEC Regal in Greenline livery

A truly enjoyable weekend. Carefully budgeted - we consciously booked the budget hotel chain where MrEH is a shareholder in order to make the most of the free breakfast we get there, meaning we could fill up on our first meal of the day each day and not need lunch. I confess I had my doubts about MrEH's actual inclination to skip lunch when it came to it, but allowing for snacks in various places - cake, hot chocolate and ice cream - it actually worked as planned to my surprise! The tickets for the boat on the way back were partly paid for with Tesco clubcard vouchers, we bought the 48 hour bus tickets, and bought Island Line Rover tickets for Saturday which gave us unlimited travel on those trains for £7 each. the Vintage buses on Sunday meant that we didn't incur extra fares for the final day after the bus tickets had expired, although as mentioned we did buy the event programme. 

Looking across Shanklin Chine towards Ventnor

We’re already firmly set on making a return trip, and if it is possible we may well try to make it the same weekend next year, but with a couple of extra days added ideally to give additional time for more exploring. The island isn’t huge, but nevertheless we were never going to be able to do more than scratch the surface in the time we had. The bus event was a real bonus and if we do that again we will aim to make far better use of those over the two days. 

Robyn