Day 1 of 5 walking around the Island with Sarah. Carrying all we need and staying at pubs, B&B and a holiday chalet each night. No camping for Mrs W!
We left Mum and Dads house in Bonchurch just before 9am on the 9th May in lovely sunshine which, despite the weather forecast saying it would be cloudy, stayed with us all day. Day 1 would take an anti-clockwise route to Shanklin, Sandown, Benbridge, SeaView and finally to the edge of Ryde for our first nights stop at the Boat House Inn.
https://explore.osmaps.com/route/12358305/activity8790092297
We broke the day up into 2 hr slots with the first leg from Bonchurch to the far end of Sandown where we had Brunch. The first section was through the landslip which is a lovely wooded area which you come out of on the edge of Shanklin which is a lovely seaside town. The coastal path keeps up high until you are nearly in Sandown and you drop down to walk by the sea. As you go out the far end there is a great restaurant called the Bandstand which is where we had brunch with a view.
Second leg was along the seaside and then up onto Culver down which had great views and an ice cream stop 😁
From Culver Down we walked down towards Benbridge past some holiday parks along narrow hedge lined paths and finally along the sea front to the life boat station where we stopped again for some tea and cookies we had brought with us.
The third leg of the walk took us from Bembridge around the Harbour past the house boats (a lot of walking on the road!) across the causeway through St.Helens along more country paths and lanes and onto Seaview. From there just a short walk out to the Boat House Inn along the sea front while watching the sail boats out on the Solent.
Looking forward to some food and beer with a good nights sleep before getting into day 2 tomorrow.
Hiking & Wild Camping 