Day 4: Freshwater Bay to Chilton Chine.

The more discerning of you will have realised that today's walk is not contiguous with yesterday's. You will also have noticed that today we are walking anticlockwise around the island rather than clockwise as before. This is not because we were starting to get dizzy! We went to visit a friend camping near Totland who walked down to Freshwater Bay with us. He is to be seen  in the first slide beside Shiel.We walked south along the promenade and followed the path up above the white cliffs.

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Below are two views taken looking back to a gradually receeding Freshwater Bay.

The path upward was soon clearly defined in the chalk as we climbed up towards the main road, heading south

 

As the path neared its maximum height above sea level it ran next to the road, between it and the edge of the cliff. The photo of Frau Barr below, is taken near the peak, looking back towards Freshwater Bay. Her view, to the south, is shown in the following image.

Today the views looking back (North)

were much more impressive than those looking South

 and we would suggest walking this section in a clockwise direction.

Today was bright and sunny and we could see clearly to the horizon in all directions. However from all the cracks, slumps and slips that were visible on the cliffs it is clearly not always so dry. These cliffs appear very unstable. Some of the paths we traversed today I wouldn't want to cross in wet weather.

For those of you who followed our Leeds to Liverpool canal blog you will know we are interested in people who literally take their dogs for a walk.Today we met such a couple.They had two lovely dachunds, from the same litter, 15 years old. One could still walk by herself, Heidi, but the other, Joker, has to be carried. He has diabetes and is blind as a result. The dogs were clearly loved by a very pleasant couple. As an aside the lady owner was also carrying a 'doggie pooh bag.' It was pleasing to see that some people cre for others as well as their dogs.

.It was a short walking day as we didn't start walking untill after midday. We also had to stop early to catch the 'Island Coaster,' the only bus running on this section of the coast. It is reputed to stop anywhere on request. The island bus drivers are excellent drivers and very friendly.

Day 3pm: Ventnor to Blackgang.

After lunch we headed into central Ventnor, which we left left by climbing to get views. However we soon descended again into Steephill Cove.

Leaving Steephill Cove we again ascended onto the cliffs, on a narrow meandering path between cliff edge and farmland. We continued in this way until opposite St. Lawrence, where we snacked, before then airing and powdering our feet. We then headed inland, through St. Lawrence, for our final significant climb of the day.

We had extensive views out to sea and over farmland inland. We passed high up inland of the lighthouse at St. Catherine's point and finished our day one busstop short of Blackgang Chine. A beautiful warm and sunny day.

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Day 3am: Shanklin to Ventnor.

This morning we took the 38 bus to Newport bus station and then the number 2 back to Shanklin bus station. (We have got 7 day rover tickets.) We arrived at 9:15am and walked down to where we left the coastal path yesterday. We decided not to lose height by walking down to the promenade. Instead we continued on the high level path. It provided good views back towards the Shanklin promenade area.

However the coastal path did return to the promenade anyway, albeit via a scenic route.

We then had to walk along the beach, to a spot near where the guy is standing in the picture below, and climb about 160 steps to reach the road. We crossed the road to enter fields (Eng.trans.) and climbed upwards, before eventually returning to the road. We may have been better staying on the road as there were no sea views in the paddocks.

We did get a view back to chalk cliffs from the road though.

This high level route then entered a peaceful wooded area which continued until we reached St. Boniface's Church (1070), just before descending to the sea wall at Ventnor where we paused for lunch. (Tea for two and 2 pieces of lemon and elderflower sponge cake.)

Day 2: St. Helens to Shanklin.

We were late off this morning leaving Newport at 10:40am. The bus trip to St. Helens was horrendous! Two women sat in the front of the bus chatting and texting whilst their offspring shouted, screamed and chanted, all the way from Newport to Sandown.

We reached St. Helens at 12:00 and made our way, by a busy road, to Bembridge. The activity on the harbour helped to distract us from the traffic noise. We think a Mr Noah owned one of the house boats, of which there were many. Some were b&bs.

We followed the path inland, behind Bembridge point, on a nicely wooded path, before returning once again to the beach, with a view south to Bembridge Pier.

We walked down past the pier before turning inland behind the Foreland beach. We passed "The Crab and Lobster" restaurant and then shortly afterwards the coastal path was diverted inland past Sally's riding school. The diversion was via a suburban roadway for which the pavements eventually petered out. Frau Barr chose to walk in the road as the pavement was uneven. The diversion eventually returned to the coast path via a public footpath from where we got a view SW to the Yarborough monument.

We followed the coastal path south west past a very large caravan park and headed uphill to the Yarborough moument from where we got extensive views all around. We then descended towards Sandown stopping on our way to have a nutty snack. As we were eating two spitfires flew by but sadly I was too slow at activating my cellphone camera.

The path down to Sandown is behind high cliffs and sometimes people are tempted yo jump. Hence the sign on the fence we saw, reproduced below.

A view nearer to Sandown.

We decided to walk on through Sandown, initially on the promenade, but at the south end of the town the path climbs onto the cliffs for a lovely high level walk into Shanklin. We saw the interesting bit of topiary shown below in a garden beside this high level path. The last picture is a view back to the chalk cliffs below the Yaborough monument, where we had lunch.