After arriving home from Ryde, I decide to check out the beach down from my hotel. The road curves off and I follow it.
It turns into a path, downhill for a change and it has switch backs and goes down and down. I hadn’t realized that I was so high up from the water.
The scenery is incredible.
There is a road and a row of hotels and pubs along the bottom of the cliff and I stroll along looking for a welcoming place to stop for a glass of wine. I walk up onto the veranda of a pub, imagining what it must be like during the season, with thousands of tourists but I like the peacefulness of it now with no one around. The owner meets me at the door and I’m soon sitting in front of a full glass and chatting. He and his wife just bought the place in June and before that, he used to be in IT. I tell him about my quest to find my ancestors from the Isle of Wight and we exchange business cards. He says maybe I’ll want to give up my day job and move to the Island and wait tables and I say maybe he’ll decide he wants to learn more about his roots.
It has been a great day and I start the long climb back up to my hotel. The path is very steep and my calves protest but finally I’m at the top and back at my hotel.
I copy the pictures I’ve taken to my netbook and then the camera shuts itself off and won’t turn back on. Clearly, I’ve given it a work out! I plug the USB cable into my netbook and wait but the blue charging light doesn’t come back on. I google my camera model and realize with despair that it won’t charge on USB. Three days left and no camera. Now what?!
I google “Camera” and “Newport” and find that there is a Jessops Camera store not far from the bus station. I’ll head there tomorrow morning before the archives and pick up a cheap camera that uses disposable batteries.
