September 2019 ride

The possibility of an Isle of Wight ride has come up a few times. How about this:

1. Catch the 9:50 sailing of the Hayling Ferry
2. Ride to the Hard (about 5 miles)
3. Catch the 11:15 sailing of the Fastcat to Ryde
4. Cycle from Ryde to Seaview via Puckpool Park

Then I would offer a choice:

1. Retrace the ride back to Ryde (someone would need to lead the riders wanting to do that)
2. Continue with me over some hills to the Red Squirrel Trail and then to Newport where we would ride to Fishbourne via a direct (ish) route

Option 1 is just 6 miles and flat.

Option 2 is 27 miles and not flat. It is the reverse of the Portsmouth CTC ‘easy’ ride we did last month – you can see the route, height and gradient graphs here.

When we get to Newport – if the ride is feeling particularly adventurous, we could take the old railway line down to Cowes and get to Fishbourne via the floating bridge and some more hills – but we would do that only if everyone is keen.

I’ve no experience of eating in Seaview, but there are several places, plus there are eating possibilities all the way back along the seafront and, of course, in Ryde.

On the Red Squirrel Trail there is Pedallers in Langbridge (which we’d get to around 2pm) and various other options on the way.

So, what do you think?

Andy