Isle of Wight Coast Path

ISLE OF WIGHT

TREK

WALK

Isle of Wight Coast Path – Day Four

Monday 07 August 2017

Day Four – Cowleaze Chine to Sandown

After a difficult night’s sleep we awoke to a cloudier, chillier morning than the day before. My Exped sleeping mat had developed a fault the evening before which meant I had to sleep lopsided all night and there was no possibility fixing it. Over breakfast we discussed the possibility of staying the night in an hotel rather than the planned wild camp.

We packed up and continued along the Coastal Path to Chale before heading up to Blackgang and through a series of fields. From the high vantage point, we had a good view over St Catherine’s Lighthouse and the Undercliff.

At St Lawrence, the path led us down through the village and on to the Undercliff before continuing east through botanical gardens to Ventnor. On the esplanade at Ventnor, we found a handy bench to sit and eat some fish and chips. It was good to have something different for a change!

We had a good mobile phone signal here and so took the opportunity to search for hotels in the Sandown area. We found one which looked good and was an affordable price and so we booked it. Happy in the knowledge that we would be sleeping in a proper bed that night we carried on towards Sandown.

At Shanklin, the path followed the esplanade all the way around the bay to Sandown and our hotel.

Accommodation

We couldn’t find a campsite in the area so we used booking.com to find the best deal that we could and decided upon The Sandown Hotel. This was a nice clean hotel with a reasonable room but we had a little trouble checking in when the young man at reception demanded, quite rudely, that we leave a cash deposit before he would give us our room key. This was for a room that we had already paid for. We phoned Booking.com who then called the hotel and reminded them of the terms and conditions of the booking and we did eventually get the key to our room but by then the damage was done and the whole stay was tainted by one overzealous and rude member of staff.

The Route

Distance : 15.5 Miles

Upon leaving the campsite the route follows the cost until Chale where it heads in towards the church and then up to the Blackgang Chine holiday attraction. Then the route becomes high-level, through fields, looking down on the land below and the coast which is 500 meters or so away. At St Lawrence, the path drops back down and you follow the path along the Undercliff and into Ventnor. From here it is up to Luccombe and then down to the promenades of Shanklin and Sandown. There is a small garage near the church in Chale where you can buy snacks and the usual seaside shops and cafes in Ventnor, Shanklin and Sandown.

Click HERE for a GPX file of the route.

David Welch – View Profile

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