Isle of Wight

It's been a while since I last posted, partly because I had my laptop stolen from my house and as well I've been travelling.  In short lots of things have been happening and I haven't abandoned this blog!  One of the the rides I have done was the Isle of Wight.  It's a large island located just south of Southampton in the UK.  I went there over the weekend with a group of friends, hoping to do lots or riding and lots of drinking.  The Isle itself is one of the largest islands in the UK, with a circumference of about 100km.  

The island can be accessed from the mainland from several of the towns via ferry which takes about 30-60mins depending on which one you get.  We boarded the ferry on our bikes amongst a large crowd of cars after having a few pints.

We also had a four legged guest which we took along, which I also had the pleasure of towing for a little while.  Which was at some times a bit of a challenge, partly because he was a little puppy who didn't like being stuck in a bouncy trailer all day.  

Generally the island is criss-crossed with paved roads as well as muddy dirt paths and bridleways.  I was one of two of us on a road bike, the others were generally on mountain bikes.  However Mr Ramen handled it well even with the thin 28mm Panaracer Pasela tyres through the muddy bits.

The island is quite lush with lots of greenery, I was wanting to go see a lot of the coastal parts, however the speed we went as a group was a bit slow and we were preoccupied with food and drink so we didn't quite make it.

However there was some beautiful scenery with misty forests and pathways crossing through farmer's fields.  We did chance upon a slightly grumpy farmer on a walking path, even though it was signposted as a public path.

We did finally reach the south coast, thankfully the sand was hard enough to allow me to ride on my relatively narrow tyres.  After that weekend, I just wanted to go back to do a loop of the island myself at my own pace.  Thanks for reading