Day 7a: Shalfleet to West Cowes.

Some of you following this blog may have realised we have missed out a section, namely Yarmouth to Shalfleet.We intend walking that tomorrow but from Shalfleet to Yarmouth. The reason for the change is that the bus service to Shalfleet (no: 7) only runs every hour whereas buses to Yarmouth and Cowes run at least every half hour. We can catch the bus just outside our hotel in Carisbrooke. The wifi here is also very good and it is better to blog the longest section whilst we can. Today's walk was over 10 miles whereas tomorrows walk is about 7 miles.

Today's walk was like the curate's egg, good in parts. There were some pleasant wooded areas but too much road walking and less than 1km of coastal walking before the final promenade walk into Cowes.

We took the no: 7 bus again. All 7s run to Yarmouth but only every other bus runs through Shalfleet. We caught the 9:50 am bus.The trip was about a quarter of an hour. The bus stops almost opposite the New Inn in Shalfleet. It was a short road walk, a few 100 metres before we turned off onto a quiet farm track. The track crossed a small river, Caul Bourne, before entering a small wooded area, just before joining a road again.

We followed the road up towards Newtown, the old capital of the IOW, crossing Causeway Lake, one of the arms of Newtown Harbour. We turned right off the road, just past the old Newtown Town Hall and entered open fields.In one we saw a women crouching down. We believe she was counting a rare type of moth. A nice, but short wooded section followed after which we had a very long and hairy road section passing through Porchfield, with its abandoned pub. About a km past Porchfield we turned north, off the road, through fields towards South Thorness farm, with its innovative gate, and onto Thorness Bay Holiday Park with its futile stile and Coast Path signs misleadingly rotated.