9.  Sandown to Bembridge - Today was all about the flora

With an early start today as heat and thunderstorms were forecast, we caught the 08:24 train, the 09:15 ferry, then the retired London Underground train to Sandown and were on the seafront starting our walk at 10:20.

But almost immediately, the suggestion of a coffee was too good to turn down, so we found a nice little café and contemplated the ascent to the Earl of Yarborough Monument.

Having completed the length of the prom is was time to go up, and in reality it wasn’t too bad…..either that or we are a little fitter (or maybe the mornings are our finest hours!).

 All the way up we could hear an intermittent odd noise which we couldn’t identify and saw some chimney pots which we confidently predicted were coastguard cottages. The noise turned out to be cars crossing a cattle grid and the cottages were the Culver Haven Inn!

 Viper’s Bugloss
(Echium vulgare)

Many of today’s paths were through woodland which would have been very welcome had the sun been shining but cloud cover and a little breeze kept the temperature down until early afternoon when it became very humid.

We wound our way downhill from here through the most fabulous display of wild flowers. There were also sightings of large numbers of static caravans!

Many of today’s paths were through woodland which would have been very welcome had the sun been shining but cloud cover and a little breeze kept the temperature down until early afternoon when it became very humid.

It was quite a walk to get round Bembridge harbour but we passed some impressive houses before emerging into the town and very near to the bus stop.

 Bembridge Lifeboat slipway

An IOW Breezer bus turned up very quickly which we declined as we would have had to pay!! An anxious twenty minutes followed as the No 8 was late but eventually turned up and took us back to Ryde via Seaview through roads that were surely not there 50 years ago?  A very large ice cream at Ryde where it became quite chilly and almost started to rain, followed by  sprint down the pier for the ferry and we were back in Petersfield at 5:30.

Well worth getting up early and another 6 miles of the Coastal path completed although the Fitbits were registering 10 miles by the end of the day.