It was a lovely sunny morning today so I decided it was too nice to stay at home so I’ve come to the Isle of Wight. I’ve had a very leisurely cycle today and I even had a tour around Portsmouth before I got the ferry over. Had a lovely chat with a man on the ferry he was a retired head master and he knew one of the people that inspired me to start cycling! Ann Mustoe who was also a teacher and when she retired she decided to cycle around the world totally unaided and on her own. I read a couple of her books years ago and as I said it inspired me to do long distance cycling. Sadly though she passed away a year or maybe two years ago. When I arrived on the island I decided that I wasn’t going to do my normal route across the island I was going to go somewhere different first. I’ve been coming to the island for donkeys years but I’ve never been to Cowes so I thought I’d give it a visit. Can’t say it was anything special it had a quant old high street and that was about it, there may have been more but I just done my normal thing of cycling through and not stopping, if it doesn’t appear on my route then I don’t see it! Just along the coast was Gurnard that was nice as the road there ran alongside the coast so there was some lovely views looking out over the Solent and watching all the boats. I was following the around the island cycle route but I soon got bored with that, it kept going up some really steep hills! I was going to go to my normal campsite at Brighstone but in the end I changed my mind and came back to near where the ferry goes from, I just fancied trying a different campsite.
Yes, it’s surprisingly difficult to get out of Gurnard. In Cowes, my favourite place is the Rhum Bar. You can sit in an old couch and enjoy a peaceful drink. I was in Paris but I couldn’t hire a bicycle with my debit card.