ISLE OF WIGHT
I HAVE NEVER NOTICED THE BEAUTY OF THIS WORLD, BUT NOW I KNOW THAT IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT MY DOOR
I never thought that England could look like that… I always thought that the nature of England was not impressive and that it couldn't even be compared to the nature of Lithuania. But yesterday I realized I was a little wrong.
BEFORE you start your journey, be sure to explore this page: https://www.visitisleofwight.
On this website, there are hundreds of activities on the island to do: kayaking, cycling routes, hiking routes, around 20 beaches, horse riding, animal farms, landmarks, theme parks, gardens, sailing, and any watersports, golf, tours, art and so on and so on. Also on this website, you can book accommodation, and campsites, you can check events, and what's going on, and you can find different maps. In short, YOU CAN FIND ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. Just start planning your trip with the help of this website.
Even if you do not know exactly what you want to do, the website helps you to make a plan according to your wishes: whether you are with family or friends, with a dog, or what you are looking for: leisure, active leisure, spiritual experience or cognition. There are also recommendations on where to eat, and how to travel by bus, bike, or on foot. What to do in summer, what to do in winter, and what to do in autumn. It is also possible to explore each city and village separately, to get a lot of ideas.
I highly recommend planning your ENTIRE trip, from start to finish, through this website, where you will find all the car parks, bike rents, walking routes, and much much more.
In fact, I have never seen such an informative website in my life. Once again, all the information and the tips are here: https://www.visitisleofwight.
Since I live in Portsmouth, this island can be seen from the shore. The Isle Of Wigh is in the very south of England.
I always thought this island was small, but it turns out it has 9 towns and even more villages. It is highly advisable to travel to this island by car, as in this case, you will be able to travel around the whole island and see and do even more things (with the car from one side of the island to the other it takes 40 minutes). Without a car, you would have to travel from one city to another by bus or stay in only one city. What I would not recommend doing because the cities are very small and there are different activities in each of them. Various landmarks and attractions are spread throughout the island.
DAY 1
The first thing you need to do is book a ferry. https://www.wightlink.co.uk/
Portsmouth - Fishbourne, and back: Fishbourne - Portsmouth.
We traveled by car, thus for one person, back and forth, is about 20-30 pounds.
The ferry took about 25 minutes to reach the island. When we arrived, we immediately drove to THE NEEDLES LANDMARK ATTRACTION. It is the most popular place on the Isle of Wight. A must-see! Close to Alum Bay. That is the westernmost point in the Isle of Wight.
There are a lot of attractions for kids and families: all kinds of carousels, cinemas, cafes, shops, glass demonstrations, sweet factory demonstrations, jeep safari, games kiosks, water walkers, etc. We only bought CHAIRLIFT.
The view is unreal! We went down the cliff, we could see the whole sea, the beach below, and rocks of different colors: various shades of red, yellow, white, and brown. I watched in disbelief because I didn’t expect England to look like this! It was beyond my expectations! We were very lucky with the weather, the sun was heating our cheeks. I was amazed by the blueness and purity of the water! So blue and so clean, almost opaque, that it looked like we were by the Mediterranean… The whole scene reminded me of Italy. Descending, we walked to the beach: very beautiful pebbles, found a lot of chalk and other obscure rocks, the whole beach is surrounded by high cliffs. Also, the beach is rocky, and waves made such a strange sound, closing your eyes you could think that hundreds of small pebbles were falling to the ground.
But the most beautiful views of the whole trip only started when we climbed up because when we got back to the car, we decided to climb to The Needles viewpoint. Climbing up, I couldn’t take my eyes off the cliffs and the multicolored rocks. It looks like someone from the mountain has knocked down a bucket of paint. Everything looked like a painted work of art: a blue sea of various shades, floating cruises and boats, lush trees around it, cliffs of incredible colors, and rocks and a beach below.
As we climbed to the top, the landscapes changed: first we walked on green, soft grass with bright purple flowers. We decided to enjoy such beauty, so we stopped for a time and lay down on the grass.
Later, the paradise of yellow flowers began: you are at the highest point on a hill, surrounded only by blue water, and the end of the sea is invisible. A strong wind blew, reaching out and feeling like a bird, or like an almighty man that no one can defeat. I felt as small as my problems. Such a big experience in such a small mind. Powerful experience. Time seemed to stop. I could spend my whole life in such beauty, so high above the ground.
Going down, the whites, like the snow, cliffs began. I hadn’t seen anything more impressive: the beach looked black.
After this hike, I fully understood why The Needles is the most popular place to visit on the island. As if from a fairy tale, it seemed that I was dreaming all the time…
When we got back in the car, we started looking for a place to camp. We had tents and sleeping bags. However, wild camping is illegal, so driving south, we were looking for a dense forest where there would be no people or foresters around us and a place where we could park the car nearby. I didn’t think it would be so hard to find a place like this. In addition, we had problems with the organization and health, on an approaching evening, we decided to spend one night in a hotel. We drove to Shanklin. Because there we found the cheapest hotel on Booking.com. Plus, Shanklin is the most popular beach and a favorite tourist town.
When we arrived at the place, we were very happy because our hotel was in front of the beach and the sea. Also, the windows of our room were direct to the sea, you could hear the sound of the waves all night. That was the cheapest room we could find, but the rooms were really good, we only paid 20 per person, although the room was worth more.
The town is small but very resort. The city was also located both at the bottom of the cliffs and at the top. Impressive beauty of the rocks and the beach. The town looked like Sventoji in Lithuania: there were many souvenir shops, cafes, ice cream stalls, and bars along the main street. We only saw families, children, and older people. It was already late at night, we took a little walk on the beach, I felt like I was on a real vacation with my parents: my face ached from the sunburns and my body was in pleasant holiday fatigue. At the end of the beach, we saw SHANKLIN CHINE. We decided to go there during the day.
Then we drank beer, we decided to go for a quick bath in the cold seawater, but we felt very tired, the whole day was very long, it felt like a week, we experienced a lot of emotions, so we went to sleep.
When we got up, we did as we promised: we went to SHANKLIN CHINE (5 months on foot). Everything looks like a jungle, we were surrounded by trees, shrubs, and plants, surrounded by the highest cliffs and waterfalls. A very nice place, where you can sit in a cafe, there was a tea garden. The entire Shanklin Chine is illuminated by a variety of colored lights and lanterns.
We paid 7.73 for the entrance, in our opinion it wasn’t worth the price. Sure, the view and surroundings are insanely beautiful, but we walked around in 15 minutes.
Since the island has VERY MUCH active sports and VERY many different bicycle routes, we wanted to dedicate this day to cycling. The website allows you to see whatever bicycle routes you want: round the island routes, family-friendly routes, hidden places routes, local's favorites routes, challenging, extreme ones, through the forests, or beaches, and so on. I googled that RED SQUIRREL TRAIL (32 MILES) is the most popular: traffic-free cycling through the heart of the Isle of Wight’s beautiful countryside.
This route can be divided into two parts: you can ride the whole, or just that wheel/loop (without the tail). Starting at Shanklin, via Wroxall, Godshill, Langbridge, Lingwood lane, Sandown, and returning to Shanklin again. We decided to cycle only the loop. I don’t know how many km in total, but probably over 30 km for sure (it took us 4 hours, stopping to rest a few times, but most of the time we cycled fast).
You can find where to rent bikes on that website. The best way, how to find the best route for yourself is on the website OR to ask the person who rents the bikes. He, according to our wishes, expectation, and duration, offered to choose The Red Squirrel Trail. And explained more about the road, indicated directions and suggested things to visit along the way.
What can I say about the road: IT WAS VERY CHALLENGING! Eglė almost died of fatigue on the bike. We were brutally tired, it was very difficult to cycle the bike constantly uphill or downhill. I wouldn’t say that nature was spectacular either, as we spent most of our time driving through the villages and fields. A couple of times there was an impressive forest trail. We explored the Island Of Wight by car and by bike quite well. Its nature and different towns. When we got back to Shanklin, our bones and whole bodies hurt, especially the buttocks. We were sooo tired so we needed to rest in the car for 30 minutes, trying to catch our breath but we were very proud of ourselves. I didn’t think I could be that enduring. Looks like I lost half of my weight, literally sweated everything;D
After cycling, we decided to read Reddit for good places for wild camping.
WE FOUND THE FOLLOWING COORDINATES: 50.726553, -1.424794
Thank you random person from Reddit, we love you <3
By the way, someone wrote, “Its where I proposed to my wife” <3
We had to drive back to the west side. There was also a parking lot for cars, but from there, with all the belongings, backpacks, bags, tents, chairs, and pillows, we had to walk to the campsite for 13 minutes. But it was a very nice place, on the seashore, behind - the forest. People from before had already made two fire-places, made a "bench", from the branches of trees they made an "entrance" to the camp with a sink. It was obvious that people were constantly camping there and constantly improving that place.
We bought carrots, broccoli, potatoes, foil, and beer. We set up a tent, lit a fire, started baking food, sat down, and drank beer. But the rain and storm came, and the fire was quenched, so we went to the tent. After a long day: a debilitating bike route, setting up a tent, and building a campfire: we were very tired, so we fell asleep. It was quite comfortable and cozy to sleep because we brought pillows and sleeping bags.
The next morning, we returned to Fishbourne and returned to Portsmouth.
I can say that the trip was amazing, we explored Island so well, we visited all sides of the coast, almost touring the whole island in a circle. We went cycling, and hiking, we walked the beaches, saw Shanklin Chine, and most importantly visited The Needles. I will definitely come back because there are so many things left unexplored! But wow, THANKS EGLE AND JOHN, IT WAS AN UNBELIEVABLE JOURNEY <3
By the way, on this island, you can find a lot of fossils and traces of dinosaurs, as well as RED SQUIRRELS;)
.JPG)
Komentarai
Rašyti komentarą