There was excellent weather for this year’s long weekend away on the Isle of Wight. Dry and sunny and although chilly at first each day it later warmed up.

Those taking part were myself, John Maxim, Sam Roberts and Debbie Lord. Most of the group rode to Portsmouth for the ferry. I had a special Camera Club event taking pictures of Chichester Cathedral. I later took the train to Portsmouth and caught up with the rest for tea at Godshill. The others had also been joined by Brian and Sue Howe who were staying at Alverstone.

The rest of us continued to our B&B at Ventor.

The next day was the Round the Island Ride.  2152 riders took part starting from various checkpoints on the route which spreads the riders round. We started from Whitwell. John went ahead at his own faster pace. Sam, Debbie and I went round together.

One of the best parts of the route is the south coast and especially the road along the cliffs above Freshwater. Below is Debbie doing a fair imitation of collapsing at the top of the hill. Actually she was trying to scramble up the bank until we pointed out the nearby steps.

After getting sorted this is the final picture.

The next control point was Yarmouth where we stocked up sandwiches and cakes at bargain prices supplied by the school.  The next part of the route had major changes due to the Cowes Chain Ferry being out of action. Repairs were due to have been completed by Friday but when they got it into dry dock they found a hole in the bottom, oops.

The organizers, the Isle of Wight Wayfarers , an independent Cycling Club did a great job with Marshalls and signs directing everybody on the diversion via Newport. The council also gave help where the route had to take a busy main road with a giant lit sign “Caution Cyclists” though I think it was fairly obvious with a continuous stream of bikes.

We eventually got round arriving back at Whitwell at 5.50 just 10 minutes before the controls closed.

On the Monday we headed back with an elevenses stop at the Garlic Farm Cafe near Newchurch in the centre of the Island. In the background of the picture you can see a large group of cyclists who had been over for the event from Exeter CTC.

The Garlic farm had 2 birds of Prey being shown by some people who take them round various locations. This cute owl was a required picture.

After elevenses we had a vertical climb and unusually I was ahead of John and able to get a picture.

We headed on to the Ferry from Fishbourne. The ferry was held up at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour to allow the frigate HMS Richmond to exit.

We rode back with a tea stop at Havant.

Below is one of the pictures I took of Chichester Cathedral on Saturday. This one is of the North West Tower.

For more see

https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwinjones/14119081312/in/photostream/

Edwin

Posted by RideLeader at 00:01 BST

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