Another cycling extravaganza - the Isle of Wight

leaving the ferry - photo by guy

such fun right guys - photo by guy

first time this has ever happened, hence the awks - photo by guy

sams a little better - photo by guy

my bike has no stand so im the guard while the others shop - photo by guy

gettin up that last hill

guys two-tone machine! - photo by guy

excellent view to wake up to

guy springle gettin shit done

team photo!

UUUUUUUUUUGHHHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHGGH

no way to make a helmet look good, boy was it rainy - photo by guy

creeptser

Motivational speaker Mr Guy Pringle got us on to another cycling mish a couple weeks ago, which was to cycle around, or partway round the Isle of Wight. So Sophie, Sam, Guy and me planned to go on the August bank holiday for the long weekend.

We caught the train down to Portsmouth from Waterloo on the Saturday morning, which is about an hour and a half I think. Straight onto the 1/2 hour ferry then away we go. We were going to follow the cycling trail clockwise, after stopping off for some yum milkshakes and crazy biking off road biking from Guy. The path takes you along the quieter roads and through a few little coastal towns and down towards the sea a few times. One such time someone had left Sam in charge of making directional decisions hahahah, which ended up with us halfway down a coastal walkway, completely overgorwn with brambles and actually CLOSED as it was nearly impassable. Well, we passed it. Scratched and bleeding we come out the other end to see the PATH CLOSED sign (as you would have seen up in the photos) Yes you may laugh at us, it really was quite funny. And sore.

After that we were on the beach for a wee bit, with vague 'lets go for a swims' and 'go on take your hands off for a photo', again where the awkward photo up there comes from, of me looking like I'm about to be shot. Sam managed a good one though. Back up through a carpark and back onto the trail, the bushes on either side of the road being blackberry bushes YUMMO but with little time to stop I didn't get to eat nearly as many as I'd have liked.

The track does go onto a few bigger roads for a while, and some of it up hill. Not too badly uphill, but with traffic and tight country roads and complete dickheads trying to overtake on blind corners, it can feel kinda sketchy at times. But there were quite a few other cyclists, the racing, lycra clad dad types and the slower packhorsed ones like us, or people just out for an afternoon, so the drivers are probably quite used to bikes being everywhere.

We stopped in the late afternoon in a place call Shanklin, to get some groceries and some beersies for the beach, and went and had a break in the sunshine. Guy, of course, went swimming, then got some insider info from a guy packing up his beach hut about the Downs, a nice big bushy area of national trust land, just follow this trail and that trail and ah....well, we made it anyway. Then to find somewhere to camp that wasn't obvious to passers by, and set up. We picked probably the best spot ever.

It was just about the highest point on our lil hill, sun going down, awesomesauce. I dont have any photos as I had my film camera with me, and that isn't quite developed yet. And possibly wont be as I remembered after I started the film that I accidentally drowned my camera at Jesus Camp, in the sea. Which actually made for a really cool scratchy/grainy look on the black and white film I had in there at the time. But will hopefully not rust out everything on the inside oh hurrumph. Anyway, I digress. So, we cracked our goon and put on a wee pot of beans etc for burritos, and sat about admiring our location for the next 6 hours.

After the sun set and it started to get colder, we all jumped in sleeping bags, lay with our heads out of the tents and watched the stars for a very long time. I saw so many shooting stars it was very cool. I also saw a super-shooting star, it was extra bright and exploded at the end a bit. Sophie can back me up I no lie lie.

The next day we packed up, headed along a really nice ridge over the top of the downs, and then back down a super steep hill, winding back towards the coast a bit. We stopped for a bite - or in my case a burger, 2 bags of chips and an ice cream - at a lookout just above a theme park, which I couldn't see but only hear, a really chilling sound of people just screaming, Slight rail sounds. It was weird. Carrying on another few kms and oh look a pub, excellent. >The Wight Mouse Inn<. Original. It was a nice spot to sit and have a beer in the sun, and some chips. The guy who was running it or owns it came over to chat, and we mentioned what we were doing, and how the forecast had so rudely turned to mush for the next day, quashing our hopes to go right the way around. He let us know of a place he used to run called the >The Folly Inn< and we should go check it out as they have really good food, it's close to the ferry for the next day, and when he ran it he used to let people camp out the back and he was sure Michelle would be ok with that just tell her he mentioned it. Well all righty then, sorted!

Back on the road! More country lanes, one more person trying to over-take on a blind corner, to which I had to yell at, as they didn't make it due to a car coming, and had to squish between Guy and I. T-bags. There was a horrendously steep hill which I'm just going to point out via some googling:

• 0%: A flat road
• 1-3%: Slightly uphill but not particularly challenging. A bit like riding into the wind.
• 4-6%: A manageable gradient that can cause fatigue over long periods.
• 7-9%: Starting to become uncomfortable for seasoned riders, and very challenging for new climbers.
• 10%-15%: A painful gradient, especially if maintained for any length of time
• 16%+: Very challenging for riders of all abilities. Maintaining this sort of incline for any length of time is very painful.

Mmmmmk, so Guy got the good way to go form some friendly old dudes at the pub, which I am now questioning the friendly part, replacing it with conniving ball-bags, but if you missed the photo, it was a 16% hill. That was so painful to even walk up. I think I made it maaaaaybe halfway before my thighs, calves and lungs all simultaneously exploded into dust. Oh well didn't need them things anyway hahaha. 

Our route took us past Bestival signs, of where they were setting up, also past a fresh milk stand, yes we did buy some, yes we did all stand around the side of the road and take turns sculling from a 2 litre milk bottle. Another highlight was stopping on a little train bridge in the forest and then having a lil train come under, and us 4 27/28 year olds all doing the arm thing for pull the horn. And success, he did in fact toot for us, as the train went under the bridge. Win.


Right.  Trying to avoid more hills we went for a bit of a nature park cycle, where we came across a family all looking into a tree. They were looking for red squirrels and apparently there was one quite close. I didn't see it, but as we were biking along the others all spotted one in a tree, so off we jumped as quietly as possible, dumped our bikes and went back to look for the 'double tree' where it was seen. No luck. 

So the Folly Inn has Ah-Mazing food, we were allowed to stay, huzzah, so once we had made it there, set up camp, we lounged around eating and drinking for the evening. Oh and also they have showers (excellent for warming up before sleeping bag) I would recommend trying your luck at camping there too if you get stuck. Some live music too.

The next day we woke up to rain, so Sam and I being the precious princesses that we are, went straight back into the Inn and had cooked brekkies. Then back to pack up, still raining, off we go, still raining, up the hill, starts pouring, along the trail, rain rain rain. We only had about 6kms to go I think, then wait for the ferry (outside in the rain, all cars must go on BEFORE cyclists/foot passengers standing in the rain), then wade into water to put our bikes in the bike spot, wonderful filthy water for my leather converse to soak up, mmmm. Lucky I thought ahead and packed a nice warm change of clothes for the train ride home, which thankfully we were early to, as there were a lot of bikes trying to get on, and we've been in the situation before when 2 of us couldn't get on and had to wait for the next train. Nothing worse than having the final stretch drawn out that little bit longer. 

All in all a super fun super exercise-y long weekend! Be cool to do the other half! Here are some maps of the route we took, by day, if anyone's interested. As you can see, we just cruised around, but if you wanted it would be quite easy to get all the way around in three days I reckon. 

Day 1

Day 2