Isle of Wight Coastal Path Blog

Day 4

Freshwater to Chale

11.3 miles

Seahorses, our overnight accommodation, provided an excellent breakfast and we were soon heading back towards the Coastal Path. This could have been called The Cliff Top Path today, as this was where we were, with some minor deviations, for almost the whole of today's walk.


Church at Freshwater Bay

It was still windy with a clear sky and the brightest of sunshine giving a startling sharpness to the landscape; the sea sparkling to our right, golden sands below the cliffs and a bank of rolling green countryside to our left. We walked across the bay and up the wooden steps at the far end, to the cliff top. Here our path ran alongside the old Military Road which follows the coast and neatly divides cliffs and seascapes from woods and pasture.

Walking along Freshwater Bay

Early traffic at Freshwater Bay

Looking back at Freshwater Bay from the wooden steps

We reach the cliff tops... and stay there

The cliffs are unstable and although their composition changes from chalk to clay and sandstone as the walk progresses this composition does not bind the coastal margin any more tightly. Everywhere there is evidence of instability. There are chunks that match the very ground one is walking on that have been torn away and are now metres below the level of the current path. Sometimes the worn path ends abruptly at a precipice, walkers have created a new one to the left of the old one. The beaches, often far below, also change as the walk progresses, from delicate pale golds to red tinged sands and are mainly on a grand scale, long sweeps beneath staggering cliffs. This is the Isle of Wight's Dinosaur Coast and many fossils have been found in these cliffs. A sign at the car park at Hanover Point had details of such finds.

Looking back towards Freshwater Bay

The cliffs change from chalk to clay

Dinosaurs!

We had to wait until 12 noon for our coffee stop owing to a lack of opportunity. The first likely place is Wight Pearl, actually a retail outlet for pearl jewellery, just as we have seen in Spain and the Canaries, but incorporating a cafe area. The kind assistant gave me two scones as he thought they were smaller than they should have been, plus two lots of clotted cream and jam. Carole had coffee cake and even though I returned for a second mug of coffee I was unable to finish the second pot of clotted cream.

Sea thrift

Our path disappears

They'll have to move the fence further back soon

'Two Scones' and his wife enjoy a break

The next three hours passed in much the same way as the morning had, with us planting our feet carefully on the cliff edge track. The only interruptions to the path are infrequent 'chines' which are splits in the cliff where the sea pushes inland. It is necessary to skirt these.

Cliff top path

A very big drop!

Here you can see the blue 'slipper clay' that slides away taking everything with it

Crossing a chine

Some sort of 'bosun's seat' device to the sea shore

Walking round Whale Chine

Finally we walked across fields to our destination, Chale, and were pleased to immediately come upon The Wight Mouse, our overnight stop. Before claiming our room we sat for an hour in the warm afternoon sun with our beer and an excellent ham and mustard sandwich. A pleasant end to another pleasant day's walk.