FERRY ACROSS THE SOLENT

On a cold, but awfully bright (especially after sampling the Vintage Porter in the Porterhouse the previous night!!), November morning 35 intrepid explorers set off on a mission to explore the mystical lands of the Isle of Wight. There should have been 36, however one fell by the wayside en route to the coach rendezvous: the previous night’s sampling taking a very sorry toll! (He reckons it was a cold, but we think otherwise!!)

After several pickups and almost a full compliment on board (sorry – had to get another dig in there Matthew!), the coach started winding its way towards Lymington. The on board entertainment (or should I say torture), a medley of canned musical hits to drive us all insane, kept us awake and longing for a beer. Our numbers increased as we found 2 stowaways smuggled aboard in Roger’s rucksack. Anyone looking on may have thought that this was an odd looking ‘Tinsel and Turkey’ do, the inflatable penguin and dolphin adding to the bewilderment. (At least they didn’t try to do a moonie out of the rear window!!)

We arrived in perfect time for the ferry and all dived aboard, the less adventurous raiding the bar for tea and coffee; the brave ones sampling the beers on offer: bottles of Goddard’s Ducks Folly and Fuggledeedum, Ahhh breakfast !! After debating whether we could re-enact the entire Titanic film in 30 minutes, we were back on board the coach and on the island.

Our first port of call was The Yarbridge Inn at Brading,. This is currently the local branches Pub of the Year, and easy to see why. A menu of beer greets you as you walk in detailing the 8 on offer including Theakston’s Paradise 4.2%, Rebellion Pickled 4.4%, Hampshire Bewitched 4.5%, Ventnor Golden 4.0%. The smiles of appreciation from all proved that this was an excellent first stop. Beer in hand, we sat back and admired our surroundings. The whole pub had a railway theme running through it, and easy to see that the landlord was a bit of a railway buff. Suspended from the ceiling was a miniature railway, featuring all of the Island’s stations, but sadly not working on our visit, (we did wonder if this was due to leaves on the line!!). A huge amount of railway memorabilia adorned the walls, and above the single bar, beer mats from all over the country highlighted some of the remarkable guest beers that must have been served here over the years. The beer flowed and it was soon time to head off on our somewhat merrier way!

Back to the music torture on the bus – but not as imposing now as we had had our first beer of the day. We headed round to Northwood and our next stop The Traveller’s Joy. Aptly named as we walked in and found another 8 beers to choose from, some of these were Goddard’s Special Bitter 4.0%, Dark Star Original 5.0%, Thwaites Liberation 4.5% and Ringwood Fortyniner 4.9%. This multi-roomed pub, including 2 rooms dedicated to pool, was very welcoming, especially as 35 of us (and 2 inflatable animals) descended upon them en masse!!! The pub is a very deserving 5 times winner of Isle of Wight CAMRA Pub of the Year, and also boasted an excellent home-cooked food menu, sampled by many of our hungry travellers. Again we whiled the time away in here, sampling the range, sadly I was so engrossed trying to build a scale model motorbike from wood that I only tried the one (Thanks Rog – it took me a whole day to complete when sober!! Let alone without alcohol added in!!). Then it was time to move on.

We were working on a tight schedule to make sure that we timed it right for the 5.30pm ferry back as we had been forewarned that the 6.00pm one was fully booked out by Parkhurst prison. (Hmmm maybe some of us would have been allowed on!) So as time ticked on, we bundled back onto the coach and onwards to Carisbrooke and The Waverley. You may have already spotted the one thing that we were having problems with. That 35 thirsty people and 1 bar, doesn’t work too well! By the time the last person had been served, the first had drunk up. This hit home in The Waverley.

Although Steve had pre-warned them that a coach load of people were coming, I don’t think they had planned for it. The bar boasted 4 real ales when we walked in, HopBack Quadhop, Springhead Oliver’s Army 4.4%, Archer’s Negotiator and Cameron’s Fireside Ale. These all disappeared very very quickly!! Eventually barrels got changed and everyone finally got served! But almost as soon as everyone got served it was time to leave. The Waverley was a huge pub, adorned with local memorabilia, and a large U-shaped bar and I don’t think we saw it in its best light. I would recommend a visit here, but maybe not with as many in tow!! I also think that something quite drastic happened to the penguin whilst we were in here as he seemed to develop a leak (Rog – I hope you have a puncture repair kit!) and then it was time to hit the road again.

The final stop of the day bought us to Freshwater Bay and the Fat Cat Bar. Before the coach had stopped those at the back made a dive for it in an effort to get served first. This would have worked if only they had tried to get in through the right door! The Fat Cat is tucked away in the Sandpipers Hotel (though I didn’t see a fat cat anywhere!) and has 2 small bars and many rooms. It had a great atmosphere and it is, as described in the Good Beer Guide, a ‘real gem’. Amongst the beers on offer here were White Horse Bitter 3.7% and Hampshire Fallover 4.4%. I would recommend a visit at the end of March as they hold the island’s biggest beer festival offering 60+ beers.

After a short time here it was back onto the coach and off for the ferry home, luckily we avoided the prison journey! Thanks to you all for your rendition of happy birthday (much appreciated, but you are a set of tuneless so and so’s). The day was rounded off merrily back in the Porterhouse and much more Vintage Porter. I would strongly recommend a trip over to the island, next time I’ll take a few days and make it really worthwhile.

Cheers to Steve for organising a great trip. Tree