Today I got up to a nice breakfast & managed to get off by 9:45. It only took me until 10:30 to get to Southampton but it was very flat or downhill all the way in high gear. The city reminds me of Toronto & not too nice, but I caught the 11:30 ferry & you'll never guess what I aw as we started off. The Canberra!!!! (The cruise ship I took to see a solar eclipse in 1973.) Looking more beautiful than ever & fully decked out with all her flags. I think I got a picture, but the vibration may blur it. I also saw the hovercraft & hydrofoil coming into the harbour. It's a rather hazy & windy day & there are lots of sailboats around but it's not too rough & apart from the throbbing vibration, It's a smooth voyage.

Monday June 23,
Portsmouth Y.H.,
Wymering Manor

I landed in East Cowes & had to take another ferry across to West Cowes. I stopped there for lunch & just as I came out of the cafe I saw the Canberra again, just leaving. I went sort of along the coast through Newtown & Yarmouth to Alum Bay where I stopped for an hour or so filling a tube with sand. (They're starting to mix already!) After going over two large hills (cliffs along the coast) it was very flat all the way to Chale. Then I walked over the hill to Whitwell. It is a very small town with one pub (doesn't serve hostelers) & a post office. After a self cooked, canned meal, I walked back to Niton for a drink.

This morning I went up to Godshill, which is a tourist trap, then to the coast at Shanklin. After going through the town, I walked along a very narrow path from Whitecliff Bay to Foreland. It was not meant for bikes; I had to go over a stile & a cowgate & shove the bike along ahead of me along a narrow path with barbed wire on one side & cliff on the other. I was going along the beach for the last while & I found when I got back on the road that the chain was covered in sand. So I stopped at the first gas station & cleaned & reoiled it: a messy job! I stopped in Ryde for lunch, came across the ferry at Fishborne then rode through horrible rush-hour traffic to here.