IT’S ALL WIGHT ON THE NIGHT
Barry Roberts girds his loins – and stomach – for a culinary bike tour of the IOW
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 24km 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 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 to start. This was followed by Szechuan king prawns and a ginger & soy baked sea bass, washed down with a lovely bottle of Chateau du Poyet Muscadet.
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 51km
‘‘ The old joke is you put your watch back 40 years when visiting here
ride through Sandown, via Brading and its Roman villa, to stop off at Bembridge windmill, the last remaining of 60, and beautifully restored by the National Trust.
A swift downhill run took us to Bembridge’s eccentric collection of boathouses for refuelling at The Best Dressed Crab In Town, a very popular boat restaurant off a pontoon, for a crab baguette and a beer. Delicious.
Refreshed, we followed the coast through smart village Seaview and rode the seafront to Ryde taking in the sights with the e-bikes making the ups a sea breeze and the downs a rolling joy. We wended our way to Fishbourne, near the ferry terminal we arrived at from
Portsmouth, to visit Quarr Abbey, home to a small band of Benedictine monks to wander the grounds and take in its history and tea shop.
Heading back to Shanklin via Newport, we joined the north to south Red Squirrel cycle route, encountering an old station platform en route at Merstone.
The bike battery was good for the hilly final climb to Shanklin.
That night we drove to the hip and happening restaurant The Hut in Colwell Bay to sample some more exquisite seafood. It’s open six months a year ( from April) and draws customers from afar to enjoy the top food and watch the sunset over the sea.
Having returned our e-bikes we drove next day to Freshwater Bay, close to the site of the biggest pop festival ever in 1970 at Afton Down, which Jimi Hendrix headlined just three weeks before he died, aged only 27. He is immortalised with a statue outside Dimbola Museum and Galleries.
It is two houses knocked together by Victorian photographic pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron, who more or less invented portraiture. Regular visitors included Tennyson, Thackeray and Lewis Carroll.
Next task was to use our feet, so we walked the three miles to Yarmouth along another disused railway track and had a coffee and cake at the PO41 Coffee House by the ferry to Lymington. Owner Aiden Hollins teaches young offenders at Feltham to roast and grind his bean blends to give them a chance to put their lives straight.
From the nearby bus station we took the Needles Breezer, an opentop bus with running commentary as it takes you to the picturesque spot (on the viewing platform for the Needles you realise why it’s called the Breezer, as winds whip your breath away).
Next day, before driving back to Fishbourne and the
Newtown Nature Reserve and the Old Town Hall, dating from 1699.
When it was threatened with demolition in the 1930s the mysterious masked Ferguson Gang, with fake names like Bill Stickers and Sister Agatha, saved the property for posterity with their money-raising antics and the National Trust now keeps it safe.
The depopulated town was one of the Rotten Boroughs, which returned two MPS with a tiny number of voters. One, George Canning, became Prime Minister.
Our final stop was Cowes, home of the regatta, for a wander and shared tapas in the delightful Gastronomy restaurant.
Feeling well fed and well exercised on this trip, Neil and I headed back to Portsmouth with Bee Gees music playing on the car radio.
Yes we’d managed to avoid tragedy and were definitely staying alive!
Our e-bikes made the ups a breeze and the downs a rolling joy