Adventures on the Isle of Wight - Day7

Our last full day of our holiday was going to be a busy one. We wanted to go and visit some of the seaside towns on the south coast. So bright and early we headed off towards Sandown via Bembridge. With a snoozing Lily I pulled into the Bembridge airport carpark to watch the planes. I say airport, its a concrete strip in a field.





Back on the road we drove through Sandown and onto Shanklin. Finding a spot to park on the cliff top we took the lift to the beach and had a picnic before some toe dipping and castle building.





Up the lift and into the old town we explored the shops for a bit picking up a bargains in the charity shops again before another ice cream and another town. Pulling into Ventnor I wanted to look at the old Cascades, site of the 1951 hillclimb on the island. We drove down them and walked back to check out the 1:4 hills with multiple hairpins, would we get back up?







I had found a photo from a 1966 rally run on the island and with a bit of photoshoppery and careful snapping managed to merge the two images.



Lily wanted another go on the beach, but we opted for the paddling pool alongside. Shaped like the island she was happy to run around as I trudged up the hill again.





With the time getting on a seaside tea of fish & chips was in order so we got a table and dined out, the sea behind us and the sun shining down. A relaxing end to the week. The last thing to do was attempt the hill back out. With Kim on snapper duty and co-pilot Lily in the seat we revved up and in a mixture of first and second swung up the hairpins home.