As it was a glorious day six of us decided to take our bikes and cycle round the Medina River. We followed the cycle path from Cowes to Newport, stopping for a picnic near Newport Rowing Club. There were a lot of swans on the river who all swam towards us as soon as they realised food might be in the offing. They were disappointed!
We were going to cycle back the way we came but instead carried on towards Newport, rounded the Quay Arts Centre and headed along the opposite bank of the river towards East Cowes. We felt obliged to stop for an ice cream at the football tournament in Seaclose Park then continued on our way. The path on this side of the river was not smoothly tarmacked and contained many tree roots and lots of mud, which made for an exciting and at times precarious ride. We headed past rusting steam boats and over marshy paths before emerging at Island Harbour. Here we made a mistake, missed the signpost (of there was one) stating that we should continue along the riverbank and ended up cycling up the hill to the main road to Ryde.
This next part of the journey was terrifying; one of our party was ten years old, so we rode in pairs, fairly close together, to ensure maximum safety. This was especially necessary as car drivers on the Isle of Wight have little or no regard for cyclists it would seem and did their best to run us off the road. Most of our party had been visiting the Island on a cycling tour, were experienced cyclists and felt they had never come across such bad driving in relation to cyclists and would not be keen to return.
However, as soon as we got to the top of the hill we left the main road and headed towards St Mildred's Church, Whippingham and from there continued into East Cowes with no further incident. We crossed the river on the floating bridge and soon after were enjoying a refreshing drink in The Duke of York pub.
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