After visiting the Isle of Wight a few weeks before I was tempted to come back and do a loop of the island, this time I would be going solo at my own pace. The loop is approximately 100km around, mostly quietish roads with beautiful coastal scenery along some edges. I caught a ferry across from Portsmouth, which is a lot faster than the ferry from Southampton as it is a pedestrian and bike only ferry which is a lot smaller. I started my journey on the island from the town of Ryde.
View Isle of Wight loop in a larger map
One of the first sights was the quaint little seaside town of Sandown, nice long sandy beach there... maybe I'll come back in summer for a swim.
Luckily for me the weather held up reasonably well with mostly sunshine and a few clouds. Most of the roads were reasonably quiet with just some island traffic, most of the drivers are quite used to cyclists on these roads so even though I rode on mostly A roads it was reasonably safe.
I managed to reach the St Catherine's lighthouse near the small town of Niton as well as a glimpse of the English channel. Onward from there along the long flat straight of Military road which runs right along the southern edge of the island with spectacular scenery.
As I got towards the end of the day, the sun was setting over the rock formation known as the Needles which are a group of small rocks jutting out from the western point of the island. I didn't realise that you could get closer to them, but it was getting late and I still had to get back to Ryde before dark.
Finally after a bit of riding during sunset, I made it back to Ryde pier for the ferry back to Portsmouth and then a train back to London from there. I had been planning this ride for a while, also this ride would be the last one with Mr Ramen in the UK, a few days later I would have left for a trip home and took Mr Ramen back with me. Thanks for reading.
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