NEW video posts !!

Vita, Kat, Katie & Frank at the end of Day Three

NEW: a couple more videos from the rides on Tuesday and Wednesday:
- Day 2: Hills, Cars and Lunchtime
- Snapshots from Day 3 (Wednesday)
And you can now click here to read all the posts right from our departure on Monday: just scroll down to the bottom of the page then read upwards. Or you can read the whole blog from the very first post here.

Wednesday evening: the last supper...

After a shower, a change of clothes and some nifty cooking by Frank and Amanda with a bit of help by Sue, everyone gathers in the Youth Hostel kitchen to celebrate the successful conclusion of our mission.

Snapshots from Day 3 (Wednesday)

Some snapshots by Rad taken in the course of Wednesday's ride, including the famous "Floating Bridge" across Cowes harbour - for the route on Day 3 see map above. The footage posted below of The end of the journey looks as if it took place in deep fog - but that was just condensation on the lens of Rad's camera. By the time the riders completed their circuit of the Island at the Yarmouth Harbour car park, the weather had actually brightened up a lot as you can see here. Unfortunately Tom was late with the minibus. Frank and Rad didn't bother waiting but headed back on their bikes to our base a few miles further on, at the YHA in Totland. Impressively hardcore !

The end of the journey...

Day 3: arriving back at the Yarmouth Harbour car park just before 5pm on Weds 23 February having achieved our goal of a complete 70 mile circuit of the Island by bike.

Setting out on Wednesday morning...

Day 2: Hills, Cars and Lunchtime

In which we learn that Frank likes sugar in his tea, that main roads and inclines are an unpleasant combination, that hills can go down as well as up, and what cyclist like for their lunch.

Setting out on Tuesday morning

Day One started nice and easy along the old railway line (see The first five miles below) but then turned into a slippery, misty, uphill chalk scramble (see The next few misty miles...). It also brought several punctures. Tom drove out in the minibus and collected bikes and riders from the tiny hamlet of Mottistone, having covered 10 miles in their first day. Rest and recreation followed at the Youth Hostel. Next morning, after breakfast and bikewashing we all drove back out to the church at Mottistone. The departure takes 48 seconds in this video. In realtime it took a little bit longer than that...

The next few misty miles...

The first five miles

Arriving on the Island

Monday lunchtime 21 Feb 2011. Finally everyone meets up at the ferry terminal in Lymington, the crossing goes surprisingly quickly, the bikes all get unloaded and everyone sets off - also quite quickly...

Arriving at the ferry terminal

And they're off...

Kat, Vita and Frank have set off from South London with their bikes in the Wandsworth Community Transport minibus, and are due to meet up with Katie and Amanda (and their bikes) by Asda on the A3. Everybody's meeting Rad in Hampshire before we all take the ferry across to The Island. Tom stayed behind to upload video of the departure (sorry about aspect ratio!) and will be dashing off in our auxiliary VW Caddy to catch up with the others...

First visit to the Island

Here's the video Kat posted in January of her first trip with Sue to check out the Isle of Wight ahead of this week's ride...

Kat's video of reconnaissance mission, 22.01.2011

A youtube video of the reconnaissance mission. Lots of random scenery and commentary of a van trip to plan the adventure!