Light

We were up and off this morning and by 10am had reached Cowes, via a bus change in Newport.  Our intention was to walk a chunk of the Isle of Wight Coastal Path from Cowes back towards Colwell Bay.

It was a grey morning which did not bode well.  However, a hearty breakfast at Coast on the main shopping street in Cowes set us up for the morning.  The first part of the coastal path that we walked is paved and, mainly, along the seafront.  We passed the disused Egypt Point lighthouse on the walk between Cowes and the village of Gurnard. The light used to flash every 10 seconds but was decommissioned in 1989 so, now, only the structure remains. I think the council preserve it as a heritage attraction. 

As we walked through the village of Gurnard and were heading away from the built-up areas when the drizzle started to turn into rain. We turned down a footpath between two fields and I realised quite quickly that we were going to spend the next few hours sliding in the mud and I really didn’t think that was a great idea.  After about ten minutes trying to find our way we decided to abandon the walk.  We’d seen a bus stop back near the houses and headed for that.

When we arrived, we were lucky that it was only about ten minutes until the next bus. Also that it was one of the days that the bus actually ran (it only runs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). As it turned out this was a community partnership bus.  We were soaked and looking to head back to Newport. The driver was amazingly helpful and dropped us at the nearest point to the interchange and we were back in Newport by 1:15pm.  We spent a little time wandering the shops but  we concluded that the weather was against us and we would be better off in the chalet - so we headed back.  

Later in the day the rain stopped just enough to allow us to use the hot tub which was a lovely end to the day.