Rent a Cottage on the Isle of Wight

I've wanted to go to the Isle of Wight for a long time so when we didn't get the car sorted out in the time to go down to Sussex and the Long Man, we changed plans and I booked us tickets down to Lymington and then a ferry from Lymington over to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. We packed our lunch the night before and got up on the early side to walk down the canal to the train station. We reached Brockenhurst a little on the early side so we were able to get to Lymington Pier on the early side. We caught the ferry, which started out as the slowest moving ferry I have ever been on. We were crawling out of the harbour- I probably could have swum faster!

The ferry ride was quite relaxing though and we had a beautiful view of both the Southern coast of England as well as the Northern coast of the Isle of Wight. We landed at Yarmouth Harbour and disembarked. Our plan was to visit Yarmouth Castle first and then take a bus down to Needles Park and visit the battery there. I had wanted to go down to Dinosaur Isle but it was over on the other side of the island and although the island is only 24 miles across, it takes about an hour and a half on the bus and that was a little extreme.



We did stop for the toilet and found the greatest little "sink"- just push the buttons for water, soap and air. So much better than silly taps.
We walked around the tiny little town of Yarmouth (at least what was in the local area) and walked right past the castle. That's not a very fortuitous sign to say the least. The sign to the castle said that it was open on Mondays but it was clearly shut up tight (although there was a nice mosaic on the wall and the a really cool large wooden castle door). Then we noticed that it didn't open until 11 am so we went to the pier first. The pier was quite rickety with names and organizations on the slats of the boardwalk and took us out into the harbour. That's when we noticed that there was nothing anything castle like about the area where the castle was supposed to be. There was kind of a lame cannon and that was about it. We dubbed Yarmouth Castle the lamest castle in all the land. At least there were some fun Supernatural style names on the slats.





Plans now slightly changed and several extra hours added to our day, we decided to walk down the coastal path to Needles. It looked like about 4-5 miles, so less than two hours trek. The path stayed next to the coast for almost all of the trip, except for a little area by Colwell Bay. The trek started out fine- we walked right up next to the sea, passing Victoria Fort before cutting in a little bit before Colwell Bay. The only problem was that the signs weren't totally clear but there were some wooden posts we got to walk on first and a wooden dolphin made out of drift-wood.


We followed the path away from the sea and through a little village- lots of beach houses and cottages to rent (like the Beatles song). We tramped through fields and orchards and got a little too far away from the coast for our liking but we kept seeing signs for the Coastal Path so we assumed that we were still in the right direction. The best part of that little area was the neighborhood of more substantial houses (not little cottages) that had beautiful lawns, great names and cute signs.

Finally we found ourselves back on the sea. The only problem was that the couple with the two dogs that we had passed way back near Victoria Bay had gotten ahead of us again. How had they done that? Where had they been walking when we were trekking through the fields? What the heck!? Concerning but on the other hands, the sea and the boardwalk were absolutely beautiful and there were delicious smells of fish 'n chips and various baked goods from the restaurants and pubs on the seaside.
Once again, we were faced with the dilemma of leaving the seaside again while following the coastal path or picking our way along the beach. There really didn't look like there was a path along the beach so we took the steps back up and found a sign for a path to Alum Bay, where we were heading. This was clearly false. We found ourselves in the middle of a jungle that was like the lovechild of the Great Woods of Narnia and the Forbidden Forest in Harry Potter and possibly some of the Jurassic Park Island forest. There really wasn't a discernable path anymore and we had no idea where we were going. Fingers crossed that Aslan was going to come and find us and thank goodness there were no Telemarines coming after us because we really were going in circles. Each path that we thought was a path really wasn't. Every once and a while we would emerge for the forest, walk through waist-high plants and then re-enter the forest. It was hilarious for about twenty minutes and then it stopped being funny as we felt like we were going around in circles. Finally, finally, finally, we emerged onto a brush filled flatter area that looked a lot like El Morro and wandered around there, hopefully trekking in the right direction, although frequently we ran into prickly plants and bushes that stung and caught us. We had lost sight of the Needles what felt like hours ago and the joy and elation we felt when we finally caught sight of them again was palatable.

The only problem now was getting down to the cable car and parking lot of the Needles Park. This resulted in about fifteen minutes of walking through more prickly bushes and plants, some which caught my hair and others that totally stung our legs. So painful and we were starving at this point- not really all in the best frame of mind at all.




But finally, finally we arrived! We made it down to the beach and nearly collapsed. I love pebble beaches (just not barefoot) and we settled down on the rocks and ate our lunch. The sun was out, it was warm, I lay down and took a nap with my head against my sweatshirt- it was absolutely lush. Except now I had a wicked sunglasses tan on my face. No pictures of that- nice try! So nice to just relax in the warm sunshine and then dip my feet into the ocean- the salt water didn't sting my legs like I thought it would and it was actually quite refreshing!



We hiked up to Needles Park, which was like a little carnival- a carousel, mini golf course, food, t-cup rides, lots of food, etc., pass through and headed down the now clearly delineated coastal path to the old and new battery. The cliffs were certainly a sight of sea- chalk white on one side and a gingerbready- brown on the other side. They were just absolutely beautiful and sheer and it was so much nicer to be able to walk and enjoy the view instead of stressing about where on earth we were precisely. Unfortunately the battery cost money so we couldn't actually go and look down over the needles, which was absolute rubbish and by that time, we were kind of over it, so we saw a short little exhibit about the rocket and space work that used to be worked on at the battery and then caught the bus back to Yarmouth.



We got seats on the top of the open bus, which was great because it wasn't too cold at all. The only problem was that the branches of the trees alongside the road came about two millimetres away from decapitating me. I couldn't even enjoy the fields of sheep without cowering in fear for my life and my head!


We got ourselves some ice cream from a place called "Scoops" on the bay and then took the ferry back home. We ended up getting home an hour early (thank you for all-day tickets!) and collapsed, absolutely exhausting. Being lost takes a lot out of you! Next time I go to the Isle of Wight, I think I'll go over with a car- much easier to see everything. Oh, and stay out of the woods.