Our trip to Thorness Bay was pretty awesome. Despite the weird trek through the speed-bump infested caravan park and the slight risk of being locked in a car park overnight, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I was ready to declare Thorness Bay as the Isle of Wight’s best sunset spot, contrary to the usual declarations that Gurnard deserves the crown.
But alas, there’s always a spanner gliding through the air just waiting to end up in the works (sorry, that was a terribly clumsy attempt at a metaphor). On a sunny Friday night we headed over to Hanover Point and walked towards Compton Bay – perhaps my favourite spot on the Island, which logically makes it my favourite spot it the World, probably. Over the years I’ve spent many evenings admiring sunsets at the beach, but it had been a good few years since the stars had aligned such as they did on that evening so I had rather forgotten how nice it can be. The weather had been baking, so stepping outside actually felt like we were wandering along the Mediterranean on a summer's evening, and we didn’t have to just pretend it was nice. The tide was fairly low and the sky was cloudless. On paper, Compton Bay sunsets shouldn’t be the best on the Isle of Wight. Indeed, God could have designed it so that the sun sets over the horizon rather than behind the cliffs of Freshwater Bay and Tennyson Down. But he didn’t. Without wishing to turn into a great big pretentious gusher, I would contest that imperfection can be more beautiful than perfection. We were joined on our stroll by an older couple who were happily walking hand in hand, at least until the lady fell over on some rocks. Luckily she was giddy enough to find this hilarious, which also gave me permission to snort loudly through my nose, much like a pig who had just been given a toffee apple. The sun slowly dropped, the waves lapped on the shore and I drank a cup of tea out of a flask. There was even a weird haziness, which gave Compton Bay an extra point on the Isle-of-Wight-Guru-Sunsetness-Scale. I think I may have found the Isle of Wight’s perfect sunset, for this week anyway.
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I've always advised romantic old fools that they should head to Gurnard for the Isle of Wight's best sunsets. The sun sets nicely over the green beach huts with the mainland straight ahead and pretty little yachts sailing past.
We discovered an alternative recently that may be even nicer though, at Thorness Bay near Porchfield. The beach's main access requires you to navigate your way through Thorness Bay Holiday Park which is one of the few caravan sites on the northern section of the island. This experience was much like finding your way out of a foreign city with my wife making helpful comments such as "didn't we pass that woman watching Coronation Street 10 minutes ago?" and "Isn't this bit one-way?" After seeing every single caravan on the site three times we found the bumpy path down to the beach. On post trip research it looks like there are other spots where you can walk down, but not much option if you want to drive. The beach itself is unlikely to be the one they choose to put on the front of the tourism magazines which fill up the racks on the ferry. It's a bit scrubby and can't really decide if it wants to be sandy or stoney. At low tide though it is a gorgeous landscape with farming fields on one side and woodland on the other. Best of all was the sunset which slowly turned the sky red. At low tide a huge pool appeared away from the sea meaning it was shallow and static enough to reflect back the sunset. I was so overcome with the whole thing that I nearly got down on one knee to propose, until I remembered I was already married. A few other happy onlookers gawped out to sea along with several fishermen who I assume had suggested taking the kids away to Thorness Bay with a secret plan to spend the whole week holding a fishing rod. We headed home, only slightly panicked by the sight of a locked gate on our way out. Thankfully we negotiated our way through and began uploading our #nofilter photos to anyone who was interested and many more people who weren't. |
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March 2024
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