Isle of Wight

April 2019

The best thing we did in our time at Southampton was to leave it (can you tell yet how much we didn't like Southampton?) for a day trip to the nearby Isle of Wight. Easy to get to, we popped over for a day trip and then hopped on a bus. Buses were infrequent, so we had planned our trip out quite carefully. 

Our first stop was Alum Bay, which was ridiculously picturesque, with water that looked incredibly beautiful, but was incredibly freezing (no we did not swim!) 

It was a steep and narrow walk down to the beach, and it was here I learned the word chine - 'a steep sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays'. The path was so steep in fact, that they've installed chairlifts that you can take down to the bay (for a fee of course) if you don't fancy the scramble. 

I bet they weren't there when my mum visited back in the day! We walked. 

The beach also had a lovely view of 'The Needles' a famous geological feature, though it doesn't show up well from the photo (the interestingly shaped rocks can just be seen in the distance) Basically a row of chalk rising from the water, they were once part of the white cliffs, before coastal erosion separated them. 

They were once larger, taking their name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's Wife, but this collapsed in a storm in 1764. The remaining 'needles' are not needle like at all, but the name remains.

I had spent the evening the day before baking, and we had brought with us a rather epic picnic in our backpacks. Cider, a berry tart, and a traditional cold pork pie, all homemade (aside from the cider!). I felt like a character from the Famous Five (just missing the ginger beer or lemonade) and loved it.

After a delicious picnic on the beach, we headed back up to the bus stop, and headed for Shanklin, which was meant to be a very picturesque town. The buses were a bit of a nightmare, running rather irregularly, so it involved a lot of waiting and time wasting, and I think another time it might be worth renting a car for the day.

 The beach by Shanklin was chilly, but nice to wander around; it felt like a typical English holiday resort town, now faded from its Victorian glory days.

We walked to Shanklin Chine, a wooded ravine, which was incredibly pretty and is one of the oldest tourist attractions on the island. From there we popped into the old village, full of thatched cottages and ridiculously pretty.

We were tempted to pop into the pub but it was overrun by tourists. Instead we wandered around and imagined Lord Tennyson writing his poetry here, as he had once lived on the island. Queen Victoria had also spent time on the island, and even had a winter house here, leading to the island becoming a popular tourist resort. Interestingly, she actually died at her residence here, which is something I never knew! 

By now the afternoon was wearing down and we were running out of time. We hopped on a bus which took us to Newport, where we then had to wait another hour for the bus which would take us to the ferry in Yarmouth. We were pretty tired by this point with all our walking around, so we popped into the 'Original Phil's Diner' for milkshakes and to rest our legs.

Finally, the bus showed up, and we headed back to Yarmouth. We had about an hour before the ferry, so we wandered the cute streets of the town, and walked out to the pier and back to kill some time. There were so many places we hadn't managed to get to, and I would love to return one day!