Yaverland one

Our first full day saw us back at Yaverland, where the tide was right for a walk north, more or less to the start of the white cliffs of Culver Point.

Not best pleased to find that the toilet block in the car park had been demolished and replaced by a small number of 50p cubicles. Which, to be fair, had a tap to pay option. But a loss of amenity nevertheless, presumably forced on the council by vandalism of the old style open-access toilets.

And irritated by the signage for the PayByPhone car parking app which gave much more prominence for the pay by day or week option than the pay by hour or minute option. We learned as time went on that this was standard Island practise. 

Moving on, it was a bit windy, which meant we had the bonus of the sand blowing along the beach. Quite a sight, even if it does get into one's clothes.

The sand, the sea and the sky were quite something too.

The pebble version.

Possibly the remnant of the remnant of the hut, probably wartime, that was perched on top of the cliff last year, looking a bit precarious. Which seems to have gone missing. And not the same as the slab noticed at reference 1, also missing. Maybe brickwork does not last more than a few months. Maybe all the the salt eats the mortar?

Various hawks above, presumably grazing on all the mice and such like which presumably live in the rough grass slopes where the cliffs have fallen away.

The start of the red cliff as you head north.

Culver point. I think it is just about possible to scramble around at low tide - but we have never tried. A popular spot for serious sun worshipers.

A bit closer. All a bit twisted up.

Heading back to the car park and the café. One paraglider on the way.

Closer still.

Back at the café, instead of our regular tea and rock cakes for two, for the first time in her life, BH opted for the full-on vegetarian breakfast. I settled for a beefburger and chips, but it was a mistake to add cheese and fewer onions would have been better. As it was, it not occurring to me to thin them out, the rather thin beefburger was rather drowned.

PS 1: the café sells the best rock cakes on the island. Fresh, made with white flour and the right amount of fruit and spice.

PS 2: the day had actually started with BH having a go in the driving seat of our hire car in the near empty (private) car park at Brading. The point of this being that she had never driven an automatic before: a modest but successful start to the conversion process - our having more or less decided that our new car will be an automatic.

PS 3: sorry to read this afternoon at reference 2 of shabby dealings at BrewDog - the people who I think have two big outlets at Waterloo Station, one in what used to be the gentlemen's toilets and the other in the Sidings. It seems that the favourite brewer of city boys is not quite as nice as one might have thought or hoped. Plus, maybe yet another good idea which has overreached itself. With me waiting for Gail's to crash after its massive expansion.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/sea-and-sand.html.

Reference 2: Down in one: how private equity swallowed the BrewDog Unicorn: Thanks for all the money, Punks - Dan McCrum, Financial Times - 2025.

Reference 3: https://brewdog.com/.

Reference 4: https://londonist.com/london/food-and-drink/waterloo-the-only-station-where-you-can-do-a-proper-pub-crawl.