Yarmouth to Alum Bay

After a wonderful day on Saturday, with the celebration of my niece's wedding and a walk along the River Medina in the afternoon , followed by a visit to Osborne House yesterday, I'd reached Rookmead Cottage, a very comfortable  holiday cottage in the small village of Wellow near Yarmouth,  and I was ready to start exploring "West Wight". The cottage was on a minor road  and I'd been surprised and delighted to discover a bus stop right outside. This meant I could leave the car at the cottage and use my bus pass! My intention for today was to  catch the number 7 bus to Yarmouth and  pick it up again for the return journey at one of number of locations further around the coast for the return journey. I had a work meeting first thing but was ready for the 10.40 bus, which arrived on time.

I got off the bus on the way into Yarmouth and cut through the town to the Pier, which I was able to access for the princely sum of  £1. I walked to the end, over the planks bearing dedications that paid for the pier's renovation. It was distinctly chilly at the end , but after donning gloves and my woolly hat, I watched the Yarmouth to Lymington ferry loading and departing and chatted to a fisherman. Two women joined us and asked me to take some photos of them, so I asked them to reciprocate.  They asked me to film a video of them walking back along the pier; I didn't bother with a video of me, but I did eventually follow them, then walked past the ferry terminal and around the harbour. At the far side, I crossed the swing bridge (not operational today because they were working on it) across the River Yar. As the road climbed out of the town and headed away from the coast, the Coastal Path was signposted off to the right. 

I work in the Open University's School of Physical Sciences, which is based in the Robert Hooke Building (one of many!), i was therefore delighted to pass an information board telling me that I was on the Robert Hooke Trail. It turns out that Robert Hooke was born on the Isle of Wight, and the trail visits various places associated with the 17th century scientist.  I walked a short distance along Norton Spit back towards Yarmouth but then turned around and left Yarmouth behind,  I followed the concrete track along by the sea, passing the Norton Grange "holiday visit" to my right then, on the approach to Fort Victoria the path climbed up into the trees.  I ventured a short distance towards Fort Victoria, but there didn't seem to be much to see; though it is worth noting thatthere was free parking) - and perhaps I just didn't got far enough. Anyway, I climbed up again into the  wood and continued along the coastal path.  It was absolutely delightful. I stopped for a chat with a couple of dog walkers, also on holiday on the Isle of Wight and also new to this part of the Island - and loving it.

I reached a viewpoint high in the woods, with excellent views across the Solent to Hurst Castle. This brought back memories of the walk along the shingle bank from Keyhaven and the visit to the Castle that Richard and I had with my sister Chris and her dog Max back in 2012. Returning to 2025, there were several benches at the viewpoint, and no other people, so it was an excellent spot to stop for lunch, sending a photo of the view to Richard (who was at home in Norfolk) to make him suitably jealous.  After lunch I continued through the woods and out onto open ground, leaving Fort Victoria Country Park. The path wound its way around Cliff End Battery, up above Fort Albert, but the views back to the fort came later. I did however get my first distant (and misty) views of the Needles.

I emerged onto Monks Lane which descended towards Linstone Chine Holiday Village ; at the bottom of the descent , I turned right onto a path through the village itself, then left past Brambles Farm. This brought me to the main road through Colwell. This was the first place I could have caught my return bus, but I didn't want to stop yet, so after a short section of waking on the pavement of the main road, I turned right onto Colwell Chine Road. a residential road which led down to Colwell Bay.  There were good views back to Fort Albert, but I turned in the opposite direcction and headed towards - and round- Warden Poing and so to Totland Bay.  

My route led me past the site of the 2012 Totland Bay landslip and also past Totland Pier, which was all shut up but has a restaurant ("The Bay") at the landward end of it,and in the summer, it will have another restaurant ("The Pier") out on the pier itself.  I passed a few restaurants that were open in this section, but they all looked like the sort of places that would serve me a three course lunch rather than a cup of tea! If I'd climbed up from Totland Beach into Totland itself, I could have caught a bus back from here to the cottage, but I still had plenty of time, so decided to continue over Headon Warren to Alum Bay.  

I knew that I needed to climb up onto the wooded headland that I could see ahead of me, but I couldn’t initially work out where my route would go – there was a beach at the end of Totland Bay but there was no obvious route beyond it and I couldn’t see a way up from the seafront. However, just past the Old Lifeboat Station, I found a flight of stairs, which took me up Widdock Chine, (eventually) emerging onto a residential road at the top – and as I walked up the road, I continued to climb. A path led from the residential road and (eventually) up onto Headon Warren, still climbing. As I reached the Warren, a man with two friendly dogs came towards me. One of the dogs jumped up to say hello to me and the man was most apologetic – but on this occasion I didn’t mind at all; it’s aggressive dogs or situations where the owner assumes that everyone is happy to be ambushed by their pouch that I object to. 

It was really lovely up on Headon Warren, with good views and colour provided by the gorse and occasional clumps of daffodils. The route-finding was initially straightforward and I could see that I was edging towards the high ground above Alum Bay and, at a lower level to my left, the development also known as “Alum Bay”, which basically comprises The Needles Landmark Attraction – essentially a theme park. There’s a large car park and I could see vehicles coming and going, but the route down from my location was less than clear. I suspect I may have missed a Coastal Path sign at some point, and I continued straight ahead (maintaining height) where I think I should probably have veered left and started to descend. I found myself in an area where some paths led through dense gorse-cover and others were rather steep and precipitous. And I didn’t even have my walking poles with me (I’d forgotten them when I set off this morning). There have been too many examples in the recent past of people killed when out walking by themselves, including the broadcaster Michael Moseley, who died lass than a year ago at my age. I decided not to take any chances and gingerly retraced my steps until I found a more plausible round down towards where I wanted to be. 

The path joined a track, and a left hand turn took me through trees and out onto the approach road to The Needles Landmark Attraction. (Turning right would have led to the path down to Alum Bay itself, with the supports of the scary-looking chair lift visible above this route). I was soon at the Alum Bay bus stop, which is on a turning circle because it is currently (as per winter timetable) as far as buses go; open-topped buses run out towards the Needles in the summer. This was also as far as I was walking today, so I now had to decide my plans for the rest of the afternoon. Number 7 buses run from here to Yarmouth via Freshwater every 30 minutes, but only alternate ones of these take the route I wanted back to Wellow beyond Yarmouth. Freshwater has a reasonable selection of shops and if I timed it right, I could stop off there to buy food for the rest of my stay in Wellow, then catch a later bus, thus avoiding the need to go out again later.