0806: So. the 50@fifty project commences with a day trip to the Needles. Wonderful Spring weather - leaving the house at seven thirty the air is cool but promises another sunshine-filled day such as we have grown accustomed to in this glorious Spring of 2011. My baggage is my bike (of course !) a rucksack filled with nothing much except my camera equipment, a pullover, a pack-a-mac and a Tilley hat.
First destination Southampton station and the Red Funnel ferry to the Isle of Wight. I decided to take the Red Funnel from Southampton for the outward leg to have the opportunity of exploring more of the Island . I came last year and wandered around the East Wight, this year it's the West culminating in that most westerly point - the Needles. The train seems uncharacteristically quiet - something to do with a certain Marriage in Westminster Abbey later this week and the first three day week I can recall since the days of Ted Heath.
0838: I have never noticed how low the ceilings are on these carriages - one poor chap is having to almost stoop.
0842: I am rapidly learning about the different cycle storage facilities that exist on the various train companies carriages. Southwest trains has a sort of widened lobby which is supposed to take two bikes. It probably would except that it doubles up as overflow seating so you are invariably scrambling to flip the seats up to store your bike while other travellers are flipping them down again so they can sit.
Cross Country, on the other hand, has dedicated bike stores - no seating conflict but the arrangement is a sort of hook whereby you hang your bike from the ceiling. This makes for some interesting manoeuvres on a crowded train and requires no little strength in the arms which is not a characteristic of most cyclists including me. After a struggle I manage it.
0900: the clouds that were hanging over Basingstoke (a meteorological metaphor?) have dispelled into sunshine now we are in the Hampshire countryside. I am ambivalent about Hampshire as a county even though Dad was born here and I have lived here for 16 years. There are lovely parts but it reminds me of Baby Bel cheese - quite nice but you know it's not all natural. If we put our minds to it, Hampshire could be somewhere unique - it does have a large percentage of the remaining uncultivated chalk downland in the UK, after all.
0949: At Southampton. Somewhere between Andover and Southampton I have lost my cycle helmet! Ah well, it was old and had a crack in it. It will force me to buy another on the IOW. Annoying though.
1020: On the ferry. Have these Red Funnel ferries been updated since my family took a trip to the IOW in the early 1970s? We didn't take our car over so were forced to experience the pleasures of Cowes on foot. I think I still remember the lunch we had in a rather dowdy restaurant even for those times. Roast beef all round! I think there is something rather special about travelling by ferry, though, or any boat really. More than any other transport I feel you are connected with the environment you are passing through.
1050: We are off. That was a very smooth cast off. The Solent is looking very placid and has a vivid hue. We are heading into the sun which reflects off the azure water. Impressions sitting in the lounge deck: noisy excited children – an infant has been entrusted with a very expensive-looking camera...foreign languages (Polish?)... two old bikers clad in leathers... a man reading the telegraph alone... a tug pulling a massive container ship to it's berth... unused fruit machines;...an unregarded video screen playing adverts... a tousled haired Frenchman taking a photo of his family
I like this ferry trip...there is always something moving on the face of the waters or interest on the banks: other ferries; day trippers; container ships; that ‘city of steaming spires’ which is Fawley oil refinery , the tower of the erstwhile Royal Victoria Hospital, now a country park,
1140: Skip on to Cowes on the IOW. I’ve taken the quaint chain ferry across the Medina River to East Cowes and am cycling through country lanes to Freshwater Bay. The IOW has certainly got a different character to the mainland and the jokes about ‘I went to the Isle of Wight but it was closed’ seem to have a ring of truth about them in this part at least.
First destination Southampton station and the Red Funnel ferry to the Isle of Wight. I decided to take the Red Funnel from Southampton for the outward leg to have the opportunity of exploring more of the Island . I came last year and wandered around the East Wight, this year it's the West culminating in that most westerly point - the Needles. The train seems uncharacteristically quiet - something to do with a certain Marriage in Westminster Abbey later this week and the first three day week I can recall since the days of Ted Heath.
0838: I have never noticed how low the ceilings are on these carriages - one poor chap is having to almost stoop.
0842: I am rapidly learning about the different cycle storage facilities that exist on the various train companies carriages. Southwest trains has a sort of widened lobby which is supposed to take two bikes. It probably would except that it doubles up as overflow seating so you are invariably scrambling to flip the seats up to store your bike while other travellers are flipping them down again so they can sit.
Cross Country, on the other hand, has dedicated bike stores - no seating conflict but the arrangement is a sort of hook whereby you hang your bike from the ceiling. This makes for some interesting manoeuvres on a crowded train and requires no little strength in the arms which is not a characteristic of most cyclists including me. After a struggle I manage it.
0900: the clouds that were hanging over Basingstoke (a meteorological metaphor?) have dispelled into sunshine now we are in the Hampshire countryside. I am ambivalent about Hampshire as a county even though Dad was born here and I have lived here for 16 years. There are lovely parts but it reminds me of Baby Bel cheese - quite nice but you know it's not all natural. If we put our minds to it, Hampshire could be somewhere unique - it does have a large percentage of the remaining uncultivated chalk downland in the UK, after all.
0949: At Southampton. Somewhere between Andover and Southampton I have lost my cycle helmet! Ah well, it was old and had a crack in it. It will force me to buy another on the IOW. Annoying though.
1020: On the ferry. Have these Red Funnel ferries been updated since my family took a trip to the IOW in the early 1970s? We didn't take our car over so were forced to experience the pleasures of Cowes on foot. I think I still remember the lunch we had in a rather dowdy restaurant even for those times. Roast beef all round! I think there is something rather special about travelling by ferry, though, or any boat really. More than any other transport I feel you are connected with the environment you are passing through.
1050: We are off. That was a very smooth cast off. The Solent is looking very placid and has a vivid hue. We are heading into the sun which reflects off the azure water. Impressions sitting in the lounge deck: noisy excited children – an infant has been entrusted with a very expensive-looking camera...foreign languages (Polish?)... two old bikers clad in leathers... a man reading the telegraph alone... a tug pulling a massive container ship to it's berth... unused fruit machines;...an unregarded video screen playing adverts... a tousled haired Frenchman taking a photo of his family
I like this ferry trip...there is always something moving on the face of the waters or interest on the banks: other ferries; day trippers; container ships; that ‘city of steaming spires’ which is Fawley oil refinery , the tower of the erstwhile Royal Victoria Hospital, now a country park,
1140: Skip on to Cowes on the IOW. I’ve taken the quaint chain ferry across the Medina River to East Cowes and am cycling through country lanes to Freshwater Bay. The IOW has certainly got a different character to the mainland and the jokes about ‘I went to the Isle of Wight but it was closed’ seem to have a ring of truth about them in this part at least.
1230: I watched two crows chasing away a buzzard that has got too close to their nests. It’s like watching two Spitfires tackling a Heinkel Bomber!
1250: lovely bluebells in the verge. Stopped at Shalfleet for a break and to eat my nosh that I’d bought in Waitrose in Cowes
1400: and I'm at Freshwater Bay. The plan is to park up my bike and start my walk to the Needles from here but first an ice cream beckons. A Magnum I think ...
1445: I’ve walked up to the Tennyson monument which is a large stone cross dominating the headland. It says it was erected at the end of the 19th century. There is also a triangulation marker with a stanza from one of his poems ‘Crossing the Bar’ engraved on the rim.
1445: I’ve walked up to the Tennyson monument which is a large stone cross dominating the headland. It says it was erected at the end of the 19th century. There is also a triangulation marker with a stanza from one of his poems ‘Crossing the Bar’ engraved on the rim.
Tennyson Down is heath cropped short by rabbit and sheep. Yellow gorse flanks a wide path which continues West and further West. The odd stunted tree breaks up the skyline while brown speckled triangular-winged day-flying moths flit along, hugging the ground so they don’t get blown into the sea. Stepping closer to the gorse, I hear the song of the Dartford Warbler – no sightings though.
1524 Kept company by a kestrel – who dives...and has struck lucky I think!
1552 Nearly there! I’m at some ex-coastguard cottages near the Needles with a great view of Alum Bay. I can just make out the chair lift taking trippers to the beach. It’s funny to think that Ruth and I were on that chair lift 25 years ago, less than a week into our marriage.
1524 Kept company by a kestrel – who dives...and has struck lucky I think!
1552 Nearly there! I’m at some ex-coastguard cottages near the Needles with a great view of Alum Bay. I can just make out the chair lift taking trippers to the beach. It’s funny to think that Ruth and I were on that chair lift 25 years ago, less than a week into our marriage.
1600: At the ‘Needles Old Battery’ NT property and took a cup of Earl Grey in what must be one of the more unusual tea rooms of any NT location – the lookout tower - which has room for 1 small table in the middle with bar stools around the wood-lined octagonal perimeter facing outwards. You put your tea on a small shelf above your stool and they have thoughtfully provided binoculars so you can admire the panoramic view while you imbibe. The rest of the fortification is interesting too, you can descend a spiral staircase and walk through a tile-lined tunnel to a searchlight outpost. This has uninterrupted views of the Needles. I must say they were impressive, I am glad I made the effort to get here – I’d often looked across at the Needle rocks from the mainland but they look very different when you look along their length. Incredibly thin – 4 or 5 large white triangular chalk stacks in a line like a bride and her bridesmaids.. It struck me that everything around this end of the island is rather pointy – the Needle rocks, the coastline as it zig-zags in and out and even the shape of the headland itself is very thin and sharp.
1701: It’s turning into a beautiful evening so I walked back to Freshwater Bay through quiet lanes and took the bike along the old railway line to Yarmouth, where I had a lovely steak and mushroompie in the King S Head pub in while listening to a podcast of ‘In Our Time’ (Childe Harolds Pilgrimage appropriately enough) before a very nice lady provided me with a ticket for the ferry back to Lymington.
1935 The Lymington ferry is a lot cleaner than Red Funnel. By now I am feeling pretty exhausted and the sun is setting. Gulls cross the bow of the ferry skimming low over the water on the way to their roosts. The ferry approaches the Pier so I nip to the front of the ferry before it docks. There is a lot of churning water while the propellers position the bow in the right place. The hard-hatted crewman presses the button to lower the door. It is now just a question of train back to Andover changing at Brockenhurst and Basingstoke – not much fun and there is a lot of waiting around. All in all, a good start to my year of excursions.
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