Bembridge to Brading

Well yesterday was a bank holiday so we decided to go for a walk.  The morning started in rather a frantic way so, being a baboon with a coffee habit, I decided we should start with coffee.

Most people know all about Costa Coffee, this particular chain gets quite a high rating on the baboon scale as they do a breakfast banana loaf.

Then we drove to the Tollgate Cafe in Bembridge, I think you probably saw me there with Jens when he was visiting.

On the baboon rating scale of 1 to 5 this cafe gets at least a 6, maybe even 7.  Great food, great atmosphere, any souvenier you could possibly want to buy, I challenge you not to find something on their menu that you want and its on the beach.

Anyway, the walk.  We started at the Tollgate and walked up to Bembridge Mill, which I also visited with Jens.

After leaving there I climbed a tree to check out where we were going.

This is what I saw ahead of me.

Then we started walking across fields.  I had to climb a number of styles and I did stop to rest and look at the scenery on this one.

You might just be able to see the windmill in the background.  Then we walked along the old sea wall, which is quite far inland now as Brading Harbour has silted up over the years.

We had to walk across an airfield.  We did that quite quickly as planes were coming in to land over our heads, quite low.  We did get a picture of it from the sea wall, you may just see the planes in the background.  Behind that you can see Culver Down and Sandown bay is behind that.

We walked through a number of fields full of buttercups, they were very pretty and shone under my chin, showing that I like butter.

We went on through the fields until we came to a wood.  It was sun dappled and full of bluebells, but to a baboon its an adventure playground.

We carried on through the woods, until we reached an stream.

It felt very peaceful there.

We could see Brading on the hills behind us.

We walked on along a little further until we got to just outside Brading.  We turned around there as the rest of the walk is on roadway and we were not going to Brading for any reason this time.  We went back through the fields.

and woods until we got back to Bembridge Mill.  Then back to the Tollgate for lunch, I had a cheese toasty with salad, highly recommended!  It was a lovely ideal sunny day and we are glad we went for that walk.  Most of our walks are seaside walks, which are lovely, but this one is a real country walk and that is a treat for us.