Isle of Wight Holiday - The Light to the South (Day 3)

My first visit to the Isle of Wight was over the May Bank Holiday Weekend of 2011. I arrived on the Friday (the day of the Royal Wedding - in fact, I nearly missed my train in my delay turning off the television - well, I had to see the dress, didn't I?) and left on Monday. On the Sunday, I attempted the Round the Isle Randonnee, but I bailed due to (a) being tired from my cycling wanderings the day before, and (b) fear in the face of "mountains".

The wanderings the day before the Randonnee had led to my "discovery" of St Catherine's Point. It was so beautiful, it was high on my list of places to see again on our summer holiday this year. 

So after settling in on the Sunday, on Monday we set off from Bonchurch headed south. Whizzing high above Ventnor and through the forests until we broke out into the sunshine: 

St Catherine's Lighthouse

The lower tower to the left housed the fog horn (now out of service)
but was a fortuitous addition as it also props up the lighthouse
itself, which is leaning!

Examples of the various types of bulbs that have lit the lamp over the decades

the rotating lens

Our tour guide, who is a retired lighthouse keeper

Rebecca 1, Vertigo 0 (phew!)

After touring the lighthouse, we set off to find the famous but elusive Beach Cafe. We knew it was somewhere along the coast to the east of the lighthouse but the paths all looked very un-roadbike-friendly. So we climbed back to the top and rode along the road until we found a steep footpath going doooowwwwnnnn.....

(actually, this was snapped from the bottom, looking back up!)

We hurtled down a steep track with lots of gravel (yikes!) and landed here:

So we parked up and enjoyed a couple of cans of very cold Diet Coke while gazing at our bikes and the sea.  (Or alternatively checking to see if we have mobile phone reception here.)

From this idyllic spot, the only way is back UP. We crawled back up the gravel road. Our goal was to find a way back to the pub at the top of that hillside staircase, without actually going back up those stairs! Fortunately, the gravel road levelled off and become something rather more civilised and eventually we were able to take a left hand turning back towards St Catherine's. Right to plan, we rolled into the Buddle Inn for lunch. 

Our bikes came right up onto the patio with us.

Adam's crab salad.

My gammon - it's underneath the tomato, mushroom and egg - you can just see the edges to the left and right.
Without a doubt the most ginormous gammon steak I've ever seen. And I ate it.

After lunch, we cycled inland through Niton, where we turned off towards Whitwell and then circled back to come out at Ventnor. I wish I'd taken some photographs along these lovely country lanes! We cycled this way again a few days later and it was just as nice the second time:  smooth tarmac, swooping curves, roller-type hills, little traffic. Perfect.

Perfect that is, right up til we reached home.

Our rented house was on a hill, on the right (seaward) when approaching from Ventnor. The opposite side of the road (alongside me) was usually solid with parked cars. Traffic on that road isn't heavy but cars tend to come in groups and they're moving fast.  Returning home the day before, I hauled myself up the hill in a very low gear and felt I had so little "oomph" left in me to watch/stop for a suitable gap in traffic to cross over towards our house, so I simply kept cycling past all the houses to a point further up the hill where there were no longer any parked cars on the left. I then pulled in, stopped, checked for traffic and then swung around in a u-turn going downhill, til I arrived at our house and could pull over smoothly onto the footpath via a dropped kerb.

That worked beautifully the night before, so I thought I'd do the same again. Adam was ahead of me this time. By the time I was approaching the house, he was on the footpath. He checked for traffic on my behalf and gave me the all-clear to simply cross over the oncoming lane, straight to the footpath. I must have been a bit addled from climbing the hill, however. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) I didn't change mental gears from Plan A to Plan B:  I aimed for the dropped kerb but overshot it, braked in time not to hit the kerb itself but "forgot" which foot I meant to put down (still thinking perhaps of my original plan to get out of traffic to the left, first). So I unclipped the left foot but was leaning to the right and so.... 

Well.  You know what happened.  Classic clipless moment. Extra style points for landing with my right leg caught between the bike and the kerb, with the full weight of the rest of me on top of the bike.

Do you want photos of the bruises now, or later? :(

The left knee the next day.

Right thigh a week later (at home).