Isle of Wight – trip 2

For the second time in 2010 I have found myself ‘abroad’ on the Isle of Wight. But this time I wasn’t at the festival, but a day tripper – via the ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth.

The crossing is shorter than my usual Southampton to East Cowes trip – and the ferries are nicer too – partly as they are newer (built 2007). AT £42 this is one of the most expensive crossings (mile for mile) in the world! (p.s. I am not a ferry anorak!)

It was a whistle-stop tour of the Island – taking in Newport (and lunch at the excellent Quay Arts), coffee in West Cowes, the chain ferry across the Medina and then to the south of the Island to Freshwater Bay. The latter is a peaceful place where I remember last swimming in the sea; to have a wash from one of my early festival trips! Sadly Dimbola Lodge was closed as I would have liked to have visited the Julia Margaret Cameron house and exhibition.

But for the second day we had The Needles in view and for the lat hour of our day headed off to Alum Bay – expecting to be able to get close to these Mariners nightmare rocks.

We found Alum bay; it was awful. I was back in ‘world class attractions’ mode. It must be somewhere near the bottom. It is commercialism at it worst. A funfair of sorts – but one stuck in time. It was like something from a1950′s horror movie. It reminded me of a rather nasty version of Coney Island in New York. All it needed was the two-headed woman freak show.

But we then thought about heading up the path to The Needles – now owned by The National Trust. It closed at 4.30pm – the time they stopped charging you £4.65 to get in. when I say ‘get in’ I mean walk along the coastal path…

Again, as I blogged about yesterday - we seem to miss opportunities. Commercial tat on the one hand and expensive rip-off on the other… I think I will go back to Coney Island – they do commercialism so much better!