My Isle of Wight Adventures Part III: The Needles, Totland-Alum Bay, and Freshwater Bay
Hello everyone. I am here for another episode of my visit to the Isle of Wight. I didn't intend for a part III but my 3 day visit did amount to 500 photos and I felt quite bad not to share the rest of the journey with you lot. Also, this serves as my travel memoir so I might as well complete it. Here's the hyperlink for the part I and part II if you have missed it and are curious. Let's start another journey and hop on to the bus!
We literally hopped on to an open-top double deck bus for this journey because we wanted to have a proper touristy experience and get some tan in the process. Our goal for the day was simple, see The Needles Attraction and any surrounding area for any time we had remaining. It is good to have small goals when travelling so there is room for spontaneity and you don't stress yourself with itineraries.
The Needles
If you think Isle of Wight you might as well think The Needles. It is their most iconic tourist attraction. It is located in the area around Totland Bay And Alum Bay and quite close to Fresh Water bay, hence, we visited all these attractions in the same day.
The needles are popular for: the three white chalk stacks leading to the Needles Lighthouse; the chairlift that gets you there; the Needles Old battery; and it's breathtaking coastal views and multi-coloured sand cliffs.
So it was only logical that Andrea and I rode the chairlift to go down the hill. We thought it was going to be pedestrian and boring since cable cars aren't very exciting but boy we were wrong!
It was pretty scary as the hill was very steep. We kinda understood why people with heart problems were not allowed as we started closing our eyes halfway to our descent. We were so thankful to see land and relax after the chairlift experience.
At the bottom of the hill people have the option to be content of watching The Needles from afar or hopping on to a boat to see it up close. And of course we took the boat! There was an option between the quicker boat which was a RIB(Rigid Inflatable Boat) or the slow boat and we took the latter as we were not ready to get soaked as it was still midday and we want to see everything we can.
We enjoyed our boat ride and chilled by the foot of the hill for a bit then we decided to climb up using a different method, the stairs! But then we failed as it was a high climb and so we decided to take the chairlifts again.
When we got up the hill we grabbed some lunch and hopped on to a bus to see the rest of Totland and Alum bay, as well as, The Needles Old Battery.
Totland Bay and Alum Bay
As I cannot delineate between this two bays on top of a bus, I will just be showing to you some random photos I took from these two bays on top of our open-top bus. It includes photos of The Old Needles Battery as it is located in this area.
The Old Needles Battery were built from brick and flint in the 1860s for the purpose of guarding the Western end of the Solent from enemy ships.
Fresh Water Bay
The day was almost over but we did manage a little stop over at Fresh Water Bay too. The water was inviting and it was high tide too but we did not swim as we were knackered and we did not bring swim wear. We just cheered for the swimmers and enjoyed the view.
This ends my day 2 itinerary in the Isle of Wight and thank you for tagging along with me. I truly appreciate it. Please come back for more travel episodes with me. Stay inspired! Cheers!
Fantastic place and tour! Anyways, have you watched the American Series called Umbrella Academy? You look exactly like Allison! 🤩