Every year in May, for just over two weeks, several thousand visitors arrive on the Isle of Wight. They come not for the music of Isle of Wight festival nor the trendy sailing regatta of Cowes Week but for something quite different. They come for a walking festival. The Isle of Wight Walking Festival is now in its thirteenth year and has become the UK's largest walking festival with over 300 guided and self-guided walks of varying length and difficulty to suit all ages and abilities.
Most of the walks are either free or ask for a charitable donation and many of them are themed around some event or attraction on the Isle of Wight. For example, you can take a look at the Isle of Wight 120 million years ago and hunt for dinosaurs on the fossil walk with guides from Dinosaur Isle, follow a heritage trail or even try out the speed dating walks.
There is a honey pot walk with one of the Isle of Wight's leading honey makers, nature walks, red squirrel walks, family treasure walks and one rather worryingly entitled "Twenty Mile Leg Stretcher". But don't think that it all stops when darkness falls. For at 8.15 pm you can have a twilight adventure with torches in fields, forests and churchyards. Then you can take a paranormal perambulation with ghost walks in Newport, the eerily creepy St Catherines Lighthouse or the smuggling caverns of Shanklin. If after all that, you have difficulty sleeping, head to Newtown at daybreak for a dawn chorus walk.
There really are walks to suit everyone. Historian enthusiasts can explore medieval churches and holy wells and families can get a little bit wet in the rock pools of Bembridge Ledge, one of the best rock pool shores in the UK.
Each year, the Isle of Wight council produces a really helpful booklet listing all the walks which includes details of the level of difficulty, the length, booking requirements and cost if applicable. Each walk is coded so at a glance you can see whether it's going to be too easy or a little bit challenging. However, don't be fooled by the titles of the walks, for the pleasantly named 'Sea to Sky' walk goes on to be described as a 'lung busting climb'.
You can hear about the origin of Darwin's Origin of Species, the first chapter of which, he wrote on the Isle of Wight, and keeping on the literary theme you can follow in the footsteps along the Tennyson Trail named after Lord Tennyson, the Victorian Poet Laureate, who used to live there. Although not quite 'lung busting', the walk itself is not an easy one. It includes a long gradual incline to spectacular views over Freshwater Bay and the Needles. Having read that Lord Tennyson was a large, bearded man, I wonder whether he did in fact walk that hill.
Speed Dating Walk and Walk the Wight
The speed dating walk celebrated its fifth year this May. It is a four-mile walk of three hours with a stop for flirting over lunch. Although this is a very popular walk, every year there are desperate pleas for more men.
The walking festival is not just for grown-ups. There are various walks for little ones too like tea parties for tiny tots with cakes included, and a parade around Carisbrooke Castle with the children dressed up as princes and princesses, or for the older ones, pick up a question sheet from Sandown library and take the family for a walk to find the answers.
The festival culminates in the sponsored Walk the Wight in aid of the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, a 26-mile charity walk from Bembridge to the Needles. However, there are shorter routes of 13 miles or the flat route of 8 1/2 miles for those that are not quite ready to take on the challenge of walking from one end of the island to the other.
Weekend Break in October
If you can't make it to the Isle of Wight in May, then why not try a weekend break in October. Due to its popularity, the organisers recently introduced another mini walking festival in October. This year the mini walking festival runs from 21st to 24th October 2011 and you can partake in many of the same walks as the main walking festival.
Getting to the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is only accessible by water which means you have to take a ferry from Portsmouth, Southampton, Lymington or the hovercraft from Southsea. Journey times vary from about 10 minutes on the hovercraft, but there are no vehicles allowed on that, to about an hour on the Southampton to Cowes car ferry. There are also passenger ferries from Portsmouth and Southampton which take about 25 minutes and have either a train or bus meeting them at Ryde or Cowes respectfully.
Go for a Walk on the Isle of Wight and Get Fit for Free
So, if you fancy a short break on the Isle of Wight and getting a bit of free exercise, why not get a ticket to Ryde and join in the UK's largest walking festival between 7th and 22nd May 2011. You may even want to have a look at other things you can do for free on the Isle of Wight.
