Saturday and Sunday 25&26 June. Two days in Bembridge

We are almost at the end of our stay here. We will be so sorry to leave. The weather has been mostly sunny but even when it rained we felt comfortable and cosy.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny. Happy birthday Alice! 🎂 As it’s the round the island race today we had decided to walk to Seaview which is north of where we are. Hopefully we will be able to watch them coming round with spinnakers up. So we set out on our walk prepared with sandwiches and various hats ( in my case). The lady in the office said we just take the coastal path. End of. We set off northwards but soon took a deviation to the sea which took us past an obviously popular place where a lot of families were enjoying beach life and there was a cafe called the bay watch bar. We passed the remains of a 11 th century church, Old St Helens church, and continued along the beach . Eventually the beach ran out and we headed up into the trees to skirt the coast. It didn’t seem like a particularly well trodden coastal path 🤔. As we climbed up into the IOW jungle, the path became less distinct and more difficult. Eventually we were traversing mud slides and places where the original path had very obviously descended into the sea. Another young woman had followed us and asked if we knew where we were going. We made some reply but she had her phone attached to her ear. She seemed to effortlessly cope with the the inclement terrain despite this, plus being shod only in plimsolls ( we had walking boots on) and eventually cruised past us. Up and down muddy slopes, roots and fallen trees to negotiate, we eventually came to a sign which said the path was unsafe and closed…….. the one we’d spent the last hour navigating!we descended a really steep flight of wooden steps to be faced with having to climb out of the forbidden territory ☹️. Ah well. We were rewarded by an amazing lunch venue once we arrived at Seaview. The Seaview yacht club were welcoming and we were allowed to sit on their deck , buy their beer and eat our own sandwiches. We watched the boats go by in the round the island race, with their spinnakers up which was fun. We returned by the “ normal “ coastal path. Which was absolutely delightful, going down lanes and fields with horses in, beautiful paths and beside the old Bembridge golf club house, now owned by the National Trust.. we did partake of a beer at Steve’s bar but it was a bit cold so we took ourselves into the tent where the motor boat cub were having their annual bbq. A typical charity event… lots of effort and about 5 people there. ! I also today cut Julian’s hair which was a bit overdue…. as mine is!

Sunday dawned sunny but windy. We have decided to stay today as well, and extend our stay by a day. It’s windy out there and we’re really enjoying it here. we had a walk up to St. Helens.. a village on this side of the harbour, and bought a Sunday paper and some hot chocolate. It was a nice We walk and not too far. Julian then cut my hair as altogether getting too long and difficult to manage on a boat. Took about 30 seconds looks great and cost nothing! After which we took a picnic and went to the beach! What a lovely afternoon. Snoozing and reading on the beach, watching the tide go out and the buoys lying on their side… the ones we came in between. Bembridge is definitely going to be in our top 5 destinations so far this trip. Been lovely.

What I learned today…. how much one can save on hair dos!

Saturday……