Harcourt Sands

In the time we had between flat viewings, and after we’d had a coffee pit-stop, we went for a walk by the coast through Appley Park and along to Seaview and then back along some back roads into Ryde. On the way be passed the entrance to Harcourt Sands, a derelict holiday park that seems to have been closed for more than 10 years.  On our previous visits many of the old chalets were visible and there are some YouTube videos featuring people exploring the abandoned park.  You could tell it had once been a park but today we noticed that demolition has begun and many of the chalets that were once visible nearer the coast are now piles of rubble. Flickr has some old photographs. Online planning documents suggest it is being redeveloped into houses and a hotel. The phrase ‘modernist seaside approach’ has been used.

Following the second viewings, we had a nice lunch at the Blacksheep Bar.  Even after last night’s disappointing chicken burger I opted for a Mexican Chicken Burger and it was so much better than the McDonalds one (admittedly, also much pricier). It made for a nice end to our stay as, not too much time after we’d finished, we were back at the pier for the catamaran to Portsmouth Harbour.  By the time we got home I was very tired which I suspect was a culmination of being out late on Thursday and not sleeping well in a noisy hotel last night.  I ended up falling asleep for half an hour or so and awoke to find PY had ordered us a Chinese takeaway. Given we have eaten out a lot in the past few days, this was probably too indulgent but it was welcome just to be able to eat without needing to do all the preparation. The food I had planned will wait until tomorrow.

Later: it seems a year ago we also ordered from the same takeaway. I wonder if we had exactly the same order?