With the prospect of perfect weather for the August bank holiday weekend we set off for the Isle of Wight bright and early on the Friday. I couldn’t resist a quick photo shoot in the Tesco Express car park near Fratton Park, where there’s a mural collaboration by Snub23 and My Dog Sighs. It’s my mission to get as many photos as possible of my scooter with other pieces by the same artist, and it makes a change to do that in Portsmouth rather than Brighton!
At the ferry port we were guided onto the upper car park which had fantastic views of the Spinnaker Tower. We didn’t have to wait long to ride onto the ferry and it was nice to see that Wightlink crammed all the scooters on for a change rather than only allowing a few on at a time.
It seems that no matter what time we leave, we are always on the ferry with Definitely Maybe SC and some of the A5s.
Before we knew it we had arrived, for that short jaunt into Ryde which fills me with such excitement. Riding along with dozens of other scooters, buzzing in and out of the traffic, and then parking in Union Street – it’s the best part of the weekend when you’ve got all the fun ahead of you. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and jumped back on the scooters to go to the Propeller Inn near Bembridge Airfield for our traditional anniversary lunch.
It’s such a peaceful spot, with occasional light planes taking off and landing, and the odd sound of a scooter riding past. The food was delicious, as usual, particularly the homemade Bounty balls for dessert!
We took a scenic route back towards Ryde and headed for Smallbrook where we swapped our weekend tickets for wristbands and goody bags. I spent some time with Tori (for a future blog, watch this space!) as well as catching up with the ScooterNova and Crusader teams. There was a steady stream of scooters arriving and groups of people chilling in the perfect rally conditions.
This gorgeous smallframe is for sale, and at a great price in my opinion!
After ticking the ‘visit the campsite’ box, the next item on the To Do list was to park on the green at the bottom of Union Street. Lee and I both had positive comments from people admiring our scooters which was very nice!
It was nice to just bump into people for a leisurely chat as well as looking at the tasty scooters on display.
We had a lovely chat with John and Jane Cambridge from Scoots And Soul, here with their Bobby Womack tribute Series 1.
Then it was time for a shower before heading out for the night. There’s always a line of scooters parked outside Yelfs but this year was the longest ever! It always interests me that they are 80% Lambrettas, and I’m not sure what conclusion to draw from that!
The evening was great fun, pub-hopping with Lee’s mates from Nuneaton. It’s the first time some of them have been on a rally for a few years, but it was like they’d never been away. It seems that Lee has picked up a southern accent, so there was a lot of banter for his pronounciation of certain words. I think if you ask my clubmates though they’ll say he still sounds like a northerner!
We drank and danced in various establishments from the Crown at the top of the hill down to the Marine Bar. We didn’t stay out late, heading to our beds at about half midnight after the campers had caught the bus back to Smallbrook.
If you want to read the next installment then here is a link to the fun we had on the Saturday of the Isle of Wight scooter rally, and here is the Sunday rideout review.
Book for next year!
To see what options are available for the Isle of Wight next year check Booking.com here. There are no guarantees whether the rally will be on but you can book a room with cancellation to hedge your bets!
Rally Guides
Rally Guides
If you’re planning your scootering calendar for 2021 then check out my 2021 Rally Guide to get the best choice of accommodation.
For an in-depth guide to the biggest scooter rally in the world, here is a link to my Isle of Wight rally guide.
Really enjoyed reading your blog thanks for sharing. Great read
Thanks for reading! There’s much more to come… 🙂