The day starts wiling a ferry trip from Portsmouth to Ryde. Setting the trend for the next week it is raining. The walk down the long slippery wooden pier at Ryde is quite exciting as cars speed by.
However the weather clears and I start off round the island on the coastal path.
The path is a mix of cliff and beach walking. With a high tide the beach bits were a bit of fingers crossed in the hope that I wouldn’t get cut off.
I stopped for lunch in Bembridge. Here it got a bit lively when a customer got very annoyed that the cafe was card only , no cash.
He was of the view that as money was legal tender the cafe was obliged to “****ing take it”. As the cafe wasn’t busy this discussion went on longer than it would have done normally and eventually with very bad grace the customer paid by card.
The walk round to Sandown took me up a steep exposed hill where my banner attempted to become a hang glider with me as the unwilling passenger.
The views from the hill over Sandown were spectacular helped by the ever gathering storm clouds and strong winds.
My hotel in Sandown was deserted with no one on reception to check me in. Ringing the hotel resulted in the phone next to me ringing plaintively. A phone call to booking.com eventually resulted in an unhappy chap from Newcastle turning up with keys. I made him even less happy by asking if he had a Sunderland accent. There was never anyone on reception for my entire stay.
Still the bed was comfortable.