Shalfleet - Newbridge Loop

We spent a rather wet weekend at Corf Camp with the Scouts again, playing in the creek and learning how to do campfire cooking.  Tom's camp doughnuts are amazing! Three slices of white bread, two spread with strawberry jam, sandwiched together, quartered,dunked in batter mix, fried then rolled in sugar. Yummy! Chocolate bananas were also scrumptious, and potatoes baked with an egg inside were interesting. Saturday evening brought a campfire, with singing and jokes. All good fun.  

On Sunday the weather cleared, so we went for a stroll (haha). We headed out of Corf and turned left to follow the road to Newtown. Opposite this turning is a footpath that heads for Five Houses so we followed this beside the wheatfields and copses, crossing the grassed over railway line, until we reached the main road.  We walked along the verge for a while then turned down the lane that to the hamlet of Five Houses, passing the occasional car and cyclist.  We spotted a buzzard swooping over the road at one point, which was quite exciting for me at least.  The eleven year old was rather blase about it!  The road turned sharp right eventually and we headed for Newbridge in search of a shop as we'd left without any provisions.  Sadly there wasn't one so we slogged through the village and took a rarely used (by the look of it) footpath that led Warlands Lane in Shalfleet.  Where the village shop was also shut. Ah well, we went to the pub instead!

We stopped at the New Inn, Shalfleet for a thirst-quenching beer and lemonade respectively, then forced ourselves up the hill to the Deli where we bought Calbourne Classics Honeycomb Icecream, then sat on the verge and watched all the scooters go by (scooter rally on the Island this weekend). When we were refreshed we ambled back along the lane to Corf and joined in with the rest of the activities.  The adults were required to attend the Scout group AGM (and to eat scones and cream and to drink Pimms - hard life!), then the kids went and flung themselves back in the creek.

In the evening there was a barn dance and buffet, with the music provided by Reel Tyme Ceilidh Band.  Great fun and a lovely way to round off what had been a superb, muddy weekend under canvas.

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/walking/route_2252723.html
Distance: 6.2 miles