Cowes to Yarmouth.
Well that was certainly a challenging day! My phone charge ran out at 28 kilometres, as I was approaching Yarmouth and even though I tried to connect it to my power pack, the phone didn’t really appreciate the mix of charging and the rather persistent rain.
By the time I had shopped in the town and walked to my base for the night I had walked just short of 30 kilometres- further than I had anticipated.
The day started well in Cowes, the weather was fine and the route straightforward- well that didn’t last long. The Yacht club had rather traditional decoration.
Coastal footpath signage is distinct and well placed so it was a bit strange when I got to a path closed sign. A bit misleading as it was a section of permissive path. Probably wrongly I decided to continue! Some muddy patches but with recent looking footprints and then !!
The path has disappeared, slipped away, luckily not a drop to the sea. A bit too steep and deep up and down to keep my large back pack on and had to manually move it. With the help of one of my poles and some past scrambling skills I regained the path and continued on!
Two more minor path slips, poles,scrambling and knees all needed. At the far end an even more positive path closed barrier! Whoops!
Mud is at a premium and as paths narrowed the mud widened!
The path goes a long way in land and uses roads in places, especially as it goes around a military area. Major inlets of water also dictate the route. An interesting historical area at Newtown, which has not only a national nature reserve but a ‘town hall’ building – this is a NT site and was once a thriving harbour area until an invasion by the French in the 1300’s. It at one point had two MPs until it was declared a ‘rotten borough.’
I was looking forward to walking close to the sea and as I walked towards the estuary there was another path closed sign. I did walk a bit further and had something to eat and decided to look up closed paths on the internet. This one was to do with damaged board walks so I decided to turn round and try a different route.
More mud, still not really next to the coast and then a slight wrong turn – probably because it was not muddy. Realised my mistake and had to turn round – and it started to rain!
Eventually as the approach to Yarmouth is nearing I am at last by the sea.
My accommodation for the night is beyond the town. Yarmouth looks as if it could be interesting and worthy of a longer look – if it wasn’t raining and already late.
So some good things from the day – I was pleased to have met the challenge of my big pack for such a long distance. There was a wonderful selection of wild flowers.
Bad things – the mud and rain for several hours.
My accommodation was a very suitable one bedroom bungalow on a holiday home site.
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 