Shanklin to Sandown Fun on a Rather Murky Day

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Hi folks, I had a free day yesterday so I decided to take a long walk up the coastal path from Luccombe to Shanklin and then on to Sandown. I was hoping the rain at least would hold off and even though it was a very overcast day, I got lucky on the rain front and it held off until I got done on my journey. I realize the island does look incredibly beautiful and serene especially when the sun has got his hat on. I still had a fun day never-the-less!

Here on the island in the winter there is barely anyone about, there are some people around the town areas but along the coast and in between the town areas it is empty! The island pace is much slower that's for sure.

I began taking photo's as I arrived in a little town called Shanklin which is not far from where I am based just outside Ventnor.

If you can see on the right hand side of the map below, I started at Luccombe landslip in the south-western corner and ended up in Sandown at the tip of the bay.

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So for my non-UK folk who read my blogs, you may not have seen these little cottages that have thatched roofing, though I'm sure many parts of mainland Europe use thatching too. It makes these little places like Shanklin look like something out of an old English fairytale. This roofing method is very old. Straw, reed and other types of vegetation are used in a compact, layered method to keep water away from the inner part of the roof. Someone told me years ago it can be costly, perhaps £20,000 to £30,000 but the roof can last anywhere from 50 to 75 years.

Inside these old cottages, the ceilings will be much lower than how they build houses nowadays for the simple fact that we as human beings were much smaller in height, at least us English folk were. Also, notice with the cottage in the picture above at least, how they use old quarry stone shipped from the mainland a very long time ago to build these houses in a certain way. Very skillful building techniques.

As I entered Shanklin, I am presented with a pub called King Harry's Bar (didn't have time sadly)

This is the really olde English looking part of Shanklin, the village itself.. again, no-one around..

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Here are a couple of the local businesses.. all rather cute right? this place is bustling with tourists in the summer though.

As I enter the more modern and town-like part of Shanklin, I come across some more cool indie shops selling their wares.

Here is a shot of Shanklin theatre..

Here is a church that I thought looked very much like the Tower in the Ryder-Waite tarot deck. Interesting reflection I thought.

As I left Shanklin and headed back towards the coastal path, I noticed this family or Person had their own time machine aka telephone box, in their front garden which I thought was very cool indeed..

So, back on the coastal path and headed towards Sandown now. In the distance you will see Culver Down, where I did a previous episode on.

As I walked I noticed this tiny little road.. Good signs for the future!

This part of the coastal path is quite secluded and hidden away so these cool people started their own business here and called it the hideaway. A nice little cafe!

Now overlooking the huge cliff face and man made beach where I'm heading and is the midway point between Shanklin and Sandown. The pier you can see below is Sandown pier..

Now I'm heading down these steps to get on to that beach you saw above..

Many beach huts along here..

Here the mammoth cliff edge, complete with many warnings that parts of it could fall on me at any given moment! yikes, but there is some great looking formation in this cliff edge..

And here I am.. almost at Sandown pier on the bay area..

Interesting photo..

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Here is a small beach shack on the bay, maybe the lifeguards tiny home in season haha, I thought the bright yellow looked great in front of the blue of the apartments behind..

And here we are at Sandown pier..

The Underworld!

I like it down here you know..

Anarcho-Aliens Unite!!!

Back out from the underworld and feeling reborn haha ;)

Wanted to try this but they were shut! :( what a plonker!..

So I went in this nice little cafe instead.. amazing cakes here

Sitting down with a coffee and relaxing..

These people know what's up :)

I noticed this sign on the side of the pier outside the front of the arcade. Perfect! very fitting considering the name of my blog. Yes, magic is real...

Well this was a long one folks, I wanted to pack quite a bit into this episode, I was going to do 2 parts when postimge.org starting playing up, but then it got going again so I thought I'd just do one episode after all and even though I am sure the weather makes a huge difference to the overall feel in these photos, I had a great day and a great walk and I am happy to share with you guys whenever I am on a journey throughout this magical island. Stay tuned for more episodes and thank you for following along with me :)

Also, I hope everyone that went to steemfest had a great time, I wish I could of made it but I'll definitely be at the next one and hope to meet the awesome people here :)

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