Barry Roberts
It was like the hare and the tortoise as my superfit cyclist pal shot up a very steep, rough bridleway out of sight. I, the e-bike tortoise with the map, remembered we were meant to turn left on the level through the huge Freemantle Gate to visit Appuldurcombe House on the Isle of Wight. But Neil had the momentum and kept going.
It was our first day on the e-bikes – hired from Routefifty7 (routefifty7.com) – and we’d cycled from our fantastic boutique Haven Hall hotel on the Shanklin clifftop along the footpath, with superb views all the way to Sandown’s beachfront.
Here we found the Red Squirrel trail – a safe, generally flat, cycling route on a former railway track. It’s a circular part of the route linking Cowes and Sandown.
We were doing 15 miles to end up in Ventnor. Along the way, you can pop in on Alverstone Mead Nature Reserve where you can spot birds and red squirrels from the viewing hide (but those 5,000 tufty reds left on the isle are very shy). A little on from there is Pedallers Cafe in Newchurch, a lovely stop-off for a light lunch and drink.
We were following the Slow Wight guide to the island, which encourages us all to park up the car for a few days and use pedal power to discover this island that Queen Victoria loved so much.
After visiting Godshill’s quaint model
Island offers a step back in time village and a refreshing ice cream, we ended up at the Smoking Lobster, an excellent beachside esplanade restaurant in Ventnor. With the sea breeze wafting through the door we enjoyed seared scallops, with sesame wakame seaweed, tuna, yuzu ceviche and nori cracker (£9) to start. This was followed by Szechuan king prawns (£23) and a ginger & soy baked sea bass (£24), washed down with a lovely bottle of Chateau du Poyet Muscadet (£25).
Meanwhile, we rang Routefifty7’s Kevin, who offers a hotel drop with the bikes but also picks them up where you leave them... in this case right outside the Smoking Lobster.
We took a taxi back to Shanklin as we’d spotted a tribute band playing at the lovely local theatre.
The old joke is you put your watch back 40 years when you visit the Isle of Wight – well we did just that catching Jive Talking, a superb nod to the Bee Gees.
Next day saw us head off on a 32-mile
The old joke is you put your watch back 40 years when visiting here