A fresh breeze but lovely and sunny as we make an early getaway from busy Bognor and make the hour long (traffic) journey to the Isle of Wight Ferry Terminal in Portsmouth and get placed on the earlier ferry (10am as opposed to the booked one at 10.40am) and are soon leaving mainland UK behind for the second time this year….

We ventured outside briefly (it makes Tilly rather anxious) in the lovely sunshine to capture a couple of shots of Portsmouth before settling in the dog friendly lounge for the rest of the short crossing. By 10.30 we are back on dry land and ready to see what the Isle of Wight has to offer for the next week, starting with Quarr Abbey, just a few miles from the Ferry Port in Fishbourne. We stopped here out of curiosity and to get a bit of a walk after being in a bit of a rush this morning and were not disappointed…

Built in 1907 and still occupied by a small group of Benedictine Monks the Abbey is generally not open but you can access the church and there was a visitor centre, gift shop, local produce farm shop and lovely tea rooms and garden. More importantly for us, plenty of woodland grounds for us to wander and a large carpark.

Our next stop was Ryde and we soon found that here was plenty of parking (paid!) along the seafront and we ended up walking along the promenade from the eastern end of Ryde in Appley, westwards into the town. The beach at Appley was beautiful and not a pebble to be seen, the half way point marked by Appley Tower (with a dog friendly section beyond) perched on the edge of the beautiful soft sandy beach….

Continuing towards the town centre, Ryde Beach is an absolute stunner, with plenty of maritime activity in the Solent and Portsmouth very visible on the horizon…

Butting up to the Pier, the oldest in the world built in 1814 and the second longest in the UK, nearly half a mile, it also provides a rail link to Portsmouth via passenger Catamaran at the end is Harbour Beach….

And just beyond the Pier is Ryde West Sands a much smaller beach but seemingly popular as a swimming beach….

In the meantime it has gotten quite warm and this seems like a good place to turn back and return to the van and make the short journey to our home for the week – Shortlands CAMC and plan the rest of the week’s adventures.

Today’s stats:

• Miles driven – 40
• Miles walked – 6
• Beaches – 4
• C/P – £4.10
• O/N – £17.40
• Return Ferry – £151.80