Although I can drive, I don't own a car. I rarely venture anywhere that's not in walking distance and on the odd occasion I do there's always the bus.
Having said that last year I invested in a £45 mountain bike, nice big light frame, I'm 6' 6”, plenty of gears,an absolute bargain buy. Unfortunately at the time the summer weather, yes we did have a few nice days, decided to break and with me being a fair weather cyclist, I never got much use out of it.
I did however get enough use to get past the saddle soreness and leg ache stage and managed to get up Arctic Road at the end of the Cowes cycle track without dying.
Of course if an exercise regime is allowed to slip one's body complains when one restarts. I type this completely exhausted and with my leg muscles on fire.
It's been a case of looking at the weather this week and thinking 'Must get on the bike'
Today it happened.
It happened because after a long wait I received a reply via Andrew Turner, our Conservative MP, about Ryde's Blue Flag Award this morning in the post.
I quote:
In the first instance I confirm that there is no direct relationships between the fees and charges collected for the use of the Council's car parks and the application for the blue flag awards for the Island's beaches and especially those in Ryde.
The blue flag scheme is a nationally administered scheme that enables potential visitors to a beach to be able to understand quite clearly the 'offer' available to them, when they visit it. It is therefore helpful in differentiating the quality of the beach from another using criteria applied consistently nationwide.
In this sense it is no different to the grading schemes (run by the AA or Quality in Tourism) that are applied to visitor accommodation having the same purpose of allowing a potential visitor to choose between different accommodation of different qualities to suit their particular needs.
The Island was fortunate to have three beaches in 2009 that were accredited to blue flag standard beaches (it has four that could be accredited in 2010). This enables it to significantly differentiate itself from other tourist destinations and forms a key part of the visitor 'offer' that is promoted to potential visitors.
The Island does of course have many other items of interest that can and are used to differentiate it from competing destinations. The quality of the beaches are however an important message to give to the 'family market' that is critical to the Island's tourist industry.
Thank you for your enquiry in this matter and please do let me know if you require any further information in this regard.
John Metcalfe
Deputy Director, Economy, Tourism and Leisure
for the Isle of Wight Council.
Here is the web address that lists the criteria that has to be met to be able to fly this prestigious bit of cloth:
http://www.blueflag.org.uk/blue2.asp
It is this that the work on Ryde's seafront has been in aid of.
So not having been to the beach in Ryde for at least 3 years I decided it would be a nice cycle ride.
I used the cycle path that runs from Newport quay to Medina High School. You then cross the road and do something that I as a kid was told never to do, you ride on the pavement until you reach the Race Course, where a track has been laid that runs parallel to the road, this takes you to the lay by opposite Whippingham roundabout. You head down the road to the crematorium and join up with the old railway line and head for Station Road Wootton, coming out opposite Havenstreet's halt and car park. Turning left you now ride along the main road, just before you get to the pub and the traffic lights you turn right into Fernside Way. It's here where I lost the sign for the cycle track, it's apparently supposed to take you down to what was once The Lakeside, I had no idea where I was going, but in front of me was a nice long hill and my legs took control of my brain and sent me down it quick.
In this process I also learnt something new Fernside Way links up to Mary Rose Avenue. It never used to, when I was a window cleaner it was a cul de sac.
Having got carried away I shot past Brannon way that would of taken me to the High Street and ended up at the children's playground at the bottom of the road which is a dead end, or so I thought.
Down the side of playground is a worn track that the local kids have made, it looks as though it floods in wet weather as they've chucked down concrete blocks and logs for stepping stones. Having mastered that bit of off road riding I found myself at the Lakeside. I rode around the car park for a minute or two, reminiscing about the gigs we had done there before they turned it into a hotel. It was the best venue on the Island for playing. Nice big stage, a nice long bar as well. That's progress I suppose.
From here it's back on the main road until you reach Ashlake Copse lane, not to be confused with Ashlake Farm Lane which comes before as this is a dead end I believe.
Ashlake Copse Lane meets Ashlake Copse Road, which takes you to Fishbourne Lane. Just past the ferry terminal on the right the cycle track continues and eventually joins onto Quarr Road. It didn't look as though the tearooms were open at Quarr so I didn't stop. Once at the junction you then turn left into Church Road. If you turn right you'll end up on Binstead's main drag. I followed the correct route until I reached the next right bend, here you turn left and the road runs up the side of the golf course parallel with the main road (hill and all!!), but I shot down Pitts Lane, legs yet again in control, and came out opposite the Fleming Arms on the main drag.
I notice the garage is being demolished, more houses? At the top of Binstead by the golf course it was nice to see what had become a yearly tradition of temporary traffic lights is still going on.
From here it's main road all the way, but boy those hills are great!!
I cycled all the way along the seafront and took a much needed rest at the Dell Cafe, that's the one nearest to the Puckpool end, supping on a pint of Guinness.
This is not the end of the beach for swimmers, especially if like today the tide is out. It's a long walk just to be able to cover your knees with water, to actually swim you're practically in the shipping lane.
The only thing that really stood out as different during that ride was the colour of the dry sand.
The Island beaches all have different types of sand. Sandown and round the corner Shanklin have a heavy like builders type sand, the West Wight sand has a heavy clay content, but Ryde for as far back as I can remember, and can be seen on Google Earth, has had sand that when dry was nearly white, fine and powdery. What was there today was yellow and resembled the sand that is used in kids sand pits.
Please don't tell me that some of the budget to tart up the seafront was spent on replacing sand!!
Having finished my pint I decided the legs still weren't up to riding, so I walked the length of the seafront to see what the Council has spent our money on.
Well I believe the pumping station got an overall, the lamp posts may have been changed a while back I can't remember, but they've had a coat of paint to match the new street furniture. There's a couple of new shelters with the paint peeling off the roofs already. There's also some ugly looking cube boxes that house some sort of palm trees. These no doubt will double up as rubbish bins and ashtrays.
The kiddies paddling pool has been filled in with what looks like, I didn't investigate closely, blue concrete.
The public conveniences that were refurbished have pretty pictures on the cubicle doors plus a pull down table to be used for baby changing.
All in all I think the money would have been better spent sorting out the so called Island Gateway which is an utter disgrace and the first thing a visitor sees. I am impressed with the new murals though, it gives it a ghetto motive.
The whole Gateway project came to a full stop due to the relevant authorities not being able to agree on maintenance access. It was a case of 'You can't build that, we can't get to......' .
Ryde seafront has always been a concrete jungle not dissimilar to Brighton. A bit of street furniture and a coat of paint doesn't hide that fact.
