Dave
CF Legend
On Monday I had decided to visit the Isle of Wight to have a day out and where better to go than the Isle of Wight, one of the most expensive places to visit in the UK (well just getting there is expensive!), and they have two roller coasters which are both adult friendly! So sounds good enough to me!
Started off the day at 8am, hit the snooze button, so back to bed, eventually got up around 10am, got dressed, brushed teeth, packed bag and headed for the bus stop to get to Southsea.
Arrived too late for the 11:00 departure so got my tickets for the 11:15 'flight' and the craft arrived as I was buying my tickets.
Note to people getting the hovercraft in future, get the HoverRover deal, £19 and you get unlimited bus travel on the island, VERY useful!
Anyway, walked out onto the slipway and onto the Hovercraft Freedom 90!
Really big inside, and very comfy!
Now this was my first time on the hovercraft so wasn't sure what to expect, tis quite a sight to see it go out let alone ride it, so when it did start up and the craft rose up it was very strange, almost like you were on a plane taking off, the roar of the engines and craft turns very swiftly.
Slowly slipping into the Solent now!
Going full pelt now and leaving Portsmouth behind!
The journey was very smooth! I wasn't expecting it to be, thought it was going to be bouncing all over the place where its only skimming the waves, was very suprised. So in 10 mins we arrived at Ryde Esplanade!
After getting off and quickly having a tourist moment and not knowing where to go I eventually got to the train station to catch the train to Sandown.
Looking towards Portsmouth and Gosport, can you see my work?
Thought I'd highlight that for you 
While waiting I took some artsy fartsy B&W photos, as I wasa bti bored.
These photos still looked quite nice in colour but was too green for my liking.
Another thing which I noticed while waiting for the train was the other platform was disused, which seemed to be a common trend at many of the stations on the Isle of Wight.
Alas! The train has commeth, these are old Underground trains which have found new life shooting around the island.
On I get and immediatley feel a little bit like im back in London! I love how it has a conductor on board, makes it feel safer somehow, got my tickets which came to £3.60 for a return, which isn't bad, was expecting much much more!
Most of the journey was just trees and the occasional house.
Arrived at Sandown and on I trotted down the long winding road which led to the seafront, spotted this:
They may not be religious but they do believe in low priced electrical goods
Even though at this point I hadn't a clue I was walking in the wrong direction I went to Sandown Pier which I'm sure I visited when i was 10. Just seemed familiar...
Weather wasn't particuarly great today, was windy and a bit cold, great scenery around here, being the Jurrasic Coast.
Walked up to the end of the pier incase any sneaky new rides had popped up, but some classic British humour on it:
Again beautiful landscape and great to just have a look at! If I had the time I would of liked to have walked up to the top of that hill.
So after being baffled as to where I was going, I got the iPhone out and looked up RCDB and found the postcode of Sandham Rides, entered it into the Maps App and found it, took 20 mins on foot to find it, eventually I found it tucked away!
There it is the dirty bitch!
After talking to a ride op about if it was open I bought my pikey four hundredth hand ticket (seriously the tokens were worn, nearly ripped), and on I popped, I've never been so ashamed. Had to take a picture.
The shame, even the birthmark didn't want to be known!
OMG POV!!!! LOLZER- Anyway away from silliness, the ride op told me a lovely story, he said that the ride was bought from Peter Pan near Ryde, and that the ride was buggered and were told it never work again, they proved them wrong. Fun story, then it got weird, he then preceeded to tell me the managers want to bury this into ditches in the ground to make it the 'lowest' roller coaster in the UK below sea level. Now I'm no expert but this ride was on a hill a good 30ft above sea level, need to be a big ditch!
Got off, said thanks to the ride op for the shame of riding and off I went back to the train station!
Bye Sandham Rides!
After nearly dying climbing back up the hill I reached the train station where I'd be going to Shanklin to catch a bus to Ventnor. This was a crap journey which had no fun what so ever, apart from the one random eye candy that came on.
I got to Shanklin and missed the rail link bus to Ventnor, so had to wait 30 mins to get there, great, time was also running short, only had under 3 hours to get to Blackgang Chine and get back to Ryde for the hovercraft back.
Bus comes, on I get and off we go to Ventnor, now I've never been more amazed and scared on a bus, as the roads were SO narrow on some of these bits, I swear we could've crashed so many times. Some amazing scenery out of the bus though.
Arrived at Ventnor, was a bleak town, needed so much paint to make it look better! Also a bit cramped. Waited 10 mins for the next bus to Blackgang Chine. Quick 20 minute hope and there I was at the next credit.
Paid the £9.50 entrance fee to get in and instantly headed for the credit, by this time it got even worse weather wise and started raining so I just wanted to get this and **** off!
Now this was a good little coaster, was quite fast on the second time around! Kids really enjoyed it so a very fun ride, the view at the top was great!, massive cliff drop! Hence name Cliffhanger.
I was a little annoyed as if there wasn't a queue I could've done it and hopped onto the bus back to Ventnor and avoided the £15 taxi I had to get to back to Shanklin! So here is a big statue!
I would've liked to have more time at Blackgang, there seemed some fun things to do, and without looking at the map I niavely thought it was only a tiny park, but its huge, must have to visit again sometime, preferably with company, or kids.
Got back to Ryde just in time for the 5:15 flight and back to Portsmouth I went. Slightly horrible journey back, as we came back into Portsmouth large ships had just gone out, so we launched off waves, causing us to be thrown about a bit, fun though if a bit sickly!
All in all a fun day out to a place I'd rarely think of visiting, I would've liked it to have been a bit sunnier but oh well! Got the credits, mission accomplished, up to 83 now!
Thanks for the reading!
Started off the day at 8am, hit the snooze button, so back to bed, eventually got up around 10am, got dressed, brushed teeth, packed bag and headed for the bus stop to get to Southsea.
Arrived too late for the 11:00 departure so got my tickets for the 11:15 'flight' and the craft arrived as I was buying my tickets.
Note to people getting the hovercraft in future, get the HoverRover deal, £19 and you get unlimited bus travel on the island, VERY useful!
Anyway, walked out onto the slipway and onto the Hovercraft Freedom 90!
Really big inside, and very comfy!
Now this was my first time on the hovercraft so wasn't sure what to expect, tis quite a sight to see it go out let alone ride it, so when it did start up and the craft rose up it was very strange, almost like you were on a plane taking off, the roar of the engines and craft turns very swiftly.
Slowly slipping into the Solent now!
Going full pelt now and leaving Portsmouth behind!
The journey was very smooth! I wasn't expecting it to be, thought it was going to be bouncing all over the place where its only skimming the waves, was very suprised. So in 10 mins we arrived at Ryde Esplanade!
After getting off and quickly having a tourist moment and not knowing where to go I eventually got to the train station to catch the train to Sandown.
Looking towards Portsmouth and Gosport, can you see my work?
While waiting I took some artsy fartsy B&W photos, as I wasa bti bored.
These photos still looked quite nice in colour but was too green for my liking.
Another thing which I noticed while waiting for the train was the other platform was disused, which seemed to be a common trend at many of the stations on the Isle of Wight.
Alas! The train has commeth, these are old Underground trains which have found new life shooting around the island.
On I get and immediatley feel a little bit like im back in London! I love how it has a conductor on board, makes it feel safer somehow, got my tickets which came to £3.60 for a return, which isn't bad, was expecting much much more!
Arrived at Sandown and on I trotted down the long winding road which led to the seafront, spotted this:
They may not be religious but they do believe in low priced electrical goods
Even though at this point I hadn't a clue I was walking in the wrong direction I went to Sandown Pier which I'm sure I visited when i was 10. Just seemed familiar...
Weather wasn't particuarly great today, was windy and a bit cold, great scenery around here, being the Jurrasic Coast.
Walked up to the end of the pier incase any sneaky new rides had popped up, but some classic British humour on it:
Again beautiful landscape and great to just have a look at! If I had the time I would of liked to have walked up to the top of that hill.
So after being baffled as to where I was going, I got the iPhone out and looked up RCDB and found the postcode of Sandham Rides, entered it into the Maps App and found it, took 20 mins on foot to find it, eventually I found it tucked away!
There it is the dirty bitch!
After talking to a ride op about if it was open I bought my pikey four hundredth hand ticket (seriously the tokens were worn, nearly ripped), and on I popped, I've never been so ashamed. Had to take a picture.
The shame, even the birthmark didn't want to be known!
OMG POV!!!! LOLZER- Anyway away from silliness, the ride op told me a lovely story, he said that the ride was bought from Peter Pan near Ryde, and that the ride was buggered and were told it never work again, they proved them wrong. Fun story, then it got weird, he then preceeded to tell me the managers want to bury this into ditches in the ground to make it the 'lowest' roller coaster in the UK below sea level. Now I'm no expert but this ride was on a hill a good 30ft above sea level, need to be a big ditch!
Got off, said thanks to the ride op for the shame of riding and off I went back to the train station!
Bye Sandham Rides!
After nearly dying climbing back up the hill I reached the train station where I'd be going to Shanklin to catch a bus to Ventnor. This was a crap journey which had no fun what so ever, apart from the one random eye candy that came on.
I got to Shanklin and missed the rail link bus to Ventnor, so had to wait 30 mins to get there, great, time was also running short, only had under 3 hours to get to Blackgang Chine and get back to Ryde for the hovercraft back.
Bus comes, on I get and off we go to Ventnor, now I've never been more amazed and scared on a bus, as the roads were SO narrow on some of these bits, I swear we could've crashed so many times. Some amazing scenery out of the bus though.
Arrived at Ventnor, was a bleak town, needed so much paint to make it look better! Also a bit cramped. Waited 10 mins for the next bus to Blackgang Chine. Quick 20 minute hope and there I was at the next credit.
Paid the £9.50 entrance fee to get in and instantly headed for the credit, by this time it got even worse weather wise and started raining so I just wanted to get this and **** off!
Now this was a good little coaster, was quite fast on the second time around! Kids really enjoyed it so a very fun ride, the view at the top was great!, massive cliff drop! Hence name Cliffhanger.
I was a little annoyed as if there wasn't a queue I could've done it and hopped onto the bus back to Ventnor and avoided the £15 taxi I had to get to back to Shanklin! So here is a big statue!
I would've liked to have more time at Blackgang, there seemed some fun things to do, and without looking at the map I niavely thought it was only a tiny park, but its huge, must have to visit again sometime, preferably with company, or kids.
Got back to Ryde just in time for the 5:15 flight and back to Portsmouth I went. Slightly horrible journey back, as we came back into Portsmouth large ships had just gone out, so we launched off waves, causing us to be thrown about a bit, fun though if a bit sickly!
All in all a fun day out to a place I'd rarely think of visiting, I would've liked it to have been a bit sunnier but oh well! Got the credits, mission accomplished, up to 83 now!
Thanks for the reading!
