travel writer

By Tim Saunders

A red squirrel. A leaf beetle. A cricket. We see all these creatures on our walk from Ryde hoverport to Quarr Abbey, nearly three miles away. We even hear a woodpecker at Quarr Abbey.

The weather is glorious during our summer day trip and even though it is for just one day we feel like we’ve been away for much longer.

Boarding the 0915 flight from Southsea it only takes us ten minutes to travel the four miles over the water to Ryde, made famous by The Beatles; Paul McCartney hitchhiked with John Lennon to visit his cousin, Betty, who had a pub in the town.

Hovertravel’s Island Flyer travels at speeds of up to 45 knots, about 52mph and the four mile trip takes exactly 10 minutes. We’re all mesmerised at the stealth of this craft as it ‘flies’ across the Solent, overtaking everything in its wake. It takes a standard ferry one hour to travel from the mainland to the island, so it’s no surprise that the Hovertravel service, which has been running for nearly 60 years, is so popular. It is a competitively priced offering, too. The staff are friendly and helpful. 

As we cross the Solent the sun arrives with a breeze so we’re never too hot. It’s perfect walking weather. With a sense of adventure for the day ahead, Caroline pops into the information centre over the bridge from the hover port and asks for directions to walk to Quarr Abbey. We’re given a printed map so Harriett (13) can try out her map reading skills. She’s improving. As we walk along Ryde Esplanade we can’t help thinking how similar it is to Guernsey in terms of its architecture and layout. It’s more appealing to us than say, East Cowes as a route in to the island. Ryde is generally better looked after.

It takes us about an hour and a half to walk to Quarr Abbey and much of the way is a lovely scenic route along the coastal path. Thank goodness we decided to bring Henry’s scooter because three miles is enough for adult legs let alone little people’s. The girls don’t complain. It’s also helpful that we are each carrying a rucksack of food so we have enough to keep us going. There’s a lovely holiday vibe and passers-by happily say hello, which doesn’t seem to happen on the mainland. Our stroll takes us along a really pleasant tree-lined path edged by a golf course. Henry happily scooters along while the rest of us walk at a sedate pace. The sunlight catches the lush green leaves of the trees overhead. “Oh, there’s a red squirrel,” exclaims Heidi (11) as we pass the garden of one house. These are increasingly rare these days so it is a wonderful sight to see him scampering across the grass. Memories of seeing them in Bournemouth when I was growing up come back to me.  

We reach Quarr Abbey and discover that the original abbey was demolished by Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries scheme where Protestants believed that these places of worship were useless. Their key role was to pray for the souls of the dead to get them into heaven, but Protestants believed you could only go there by praying to God yourself. So hundreds of years of monks being in Ryde was wiped out until the 1900s when a new monastery was built and here it is. From an architectural point of view it is a pleasing brick built structure of considerable merit. It’s striking and boasts craftsmanship that we can only dream of today. Clearly a huge amount of skill has been imparted in the creation of this gem and the small number of monks who continue to live and work here are certainly fortunate. On a day like today it really could be heaven on earth and we're exceptionally fortunate that the monks let us in to experience a little bit of their existence. The abbey itself is a place of solitude that allows us to all have a prayer and light a candle in the hope that it might help our world to improve and prosper. But when we look round and find fellow visitors not praying or admiring their surroundings but glued to their devices. We continue to mooch and make our way to the piggery where there are plenty of piglets to feed.

“Oh they’re so adorable,” the children say in unison.

They certainly have a good life here. This is an excellent family attraction, not least because it's free to visit. Caroline and I sit on one of many benches and relax while the children feed their pigs. As we do this we spy a little cricket on the bench. Caroline goes to look closer and it makes a surprisingly long jump. Nature is incredible.

We treat ourselves to drinks in the café, which helps to recharge us for our walk back to Ryde where Henry narrowly avoids killing a leaf beetle. He picks it up and walks with it for a little way before popping it into a hedge.

He's feeling energetic and jumps back on his scooter and races down a scarily big hill. He’s too fast for us to stop him. It would surely make a fantastic video but as with the squirrel I’m just not quick enough to catch it.

“Was that your son?” question a couple as they breathlessly reach the top. We chuckle thinking that they might have had to quickly jump into a hedge to avoid him pelting towards them. When we finally catch up with him, the little blighter is a bit shaken but surprisingly he has stayed on his scooter all the way down, missing the stream and didn’t hit the staggered fence at the foot of the path.

“I couldn’t brake,” he reveals.

But he’s alright, a little shaken and that’ll make him think twice in future.

“It’s a good job I didn’t put a foot down,” he says, “otherwise I might have fallen off.”

But he feels he’s conquered something, that it’s a death defying achievement. We all contemplate him in a hospital bed with his body in a cast. He's lucky. Boys and their testosterone.

After that Daddy is required to give Henry some piggy backs. Thankfully after not too long a bench appears in Ryde on a hill overlooking the sea and the Hovertravel hovercraft flying back and forth like a mad thing. After a spot of window shopping we pop into a local supermarket for some biscuits and are shocked and disappointed by three teenagers shoplifting and running round the shop being chased by staff. It’s a sad sign of the times. What can shop staff do when these neanderthals eat a lolly and walk out? These imbeciles know they can get away with it.

“If all the customers in the shop had stood up to these idiots and told them it was wrong, rather than turning a blind eye, may be they wouldn’t do it again,” we all consider. Maybe. But the problem is we are fed up of having to think for others all the time. Be it bad behaviour on the under 9s football pitch, bad language on the under 12s hockey pitch or the ineptitude of teachers we seem to have to confront inappropriate attitudes all the time and surely we should be allowed time off, especially on a day out. But this is life these days. Kids with no discipline turn into criminals. Fact. If parents won’t step up then the state must. I can’t see Sir Keir Starmer doing that though.

Muttering our disapproval and discontent we head for Ryde beach where we have a bite to eat and then get on the lovely sand. There’s nothing like walking bare foot on warm golden sand. We play football, bury ourselves and have a running race. No time to rest here though, it’s time to head back to the hover port. When we arrive we discover that Hovertravel has had a bit of a challenge since about 1430 when a Royal Navy aircraft carrier arrived in the Solent, which effectively stopped Hovertravel from operating for a while. This wasn’t the only problem they encountered because additionally on this wonderful summer’s day swimmers and kayakers have been obliviously splashing about in the path of the hovercraft without a care. One kayaker has even been reported to have hit the edge of the craft. This is very serious because you can imagine the tragedy if God forbid anyone was hit by the craft in the water. It’s only down to the diligence of the pilot that a major accident has not occurred today. All of this does delay our return crossing but this is life and nobody has been killed or maimed. We can’t complain. Our 1915 crossing leaves at 2000 and we arrive home before 2100 quite content having made some wonderful memories.

When Henry rings Grandma he reports the full day to her with pride. “It was the best day,” he beams. “I loved the beach.”

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