Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 bike ride to Brighstone, Saturday, 29th-October-2022. Bognor Regis to Brighstone, Isle of Wight. 49 miles. One last trip to Grange Farm before they close for the winter on Monday.
Where did the summer go? It doesn’t seem that long ago that the campsites were only just opening up for the season, and now they’re closing. They say time flys by when you get older. I think they’re right!
The ride down to Portsmouth was fast. I had a nice tailwind which was one of my reasons for coming away. Hopefully, it should change direction tomorrow and blow me back home.
The ride across the Island was also good. I didn’t even mind the hills. I was going to stop for lunch at the Chequers Inn at Rookley. A traditional watering hole from back in the days of the Isle of Wight weekend. But I was too early, and they were still closed. Probably for the best, I might not have left, especially as they’ve got a camping field next door now!
I arrived in Brighstone just before one o’clock and stopped off at the local shop to get supplies for the night. As I stood outside the shop packing my supplies into the panniers, I got talking to another customer who was also into cycling. Well, it turns out that I’d spent a drunken afternoon with him about twenty years ago!
I remember him because he had cycled from Cowes (on the Isle of Wight) to Casablanca, which he mentioned briefly this time. Except he said, he’d cycled to Africa. And it was only when he went to go I asked him was it Cowes to Casablanca he’d cycled, and he said yes. He also used to drink in the pub where I remember the conversation happening! How strange, we were both convinced that it was him. As he said, “how many other people have cycled Cowes to Casablanca?”
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