Walking on the Wight: With Creative Ways Outdoors, Frankie & Chris
Creative Ways Outdoors is a wife and husband venture led by Frankie Goldspink and Chris Slann. We have lived together now for over 40-years and always had a great passion for encouraging participation in arts activities and walking. What better way to combine these passions than our Relay the Bay Project. Come and join us on one or all of the six legs of this walk, learn about what is so special about the Bay area and help relay beautifully crafted silk pennants from one stop to the next.
What makes the Isle of Wight so special for walking?
The Isle of Wight is a walker’s heaven. We have walked many of the great trails across the world, from Everest Base Camp in Nepal to the High Inca Trail in Peru and the extraordinary Mount Roraima (the lost world) in Venezuela. In none of these places have we experienced such a diversity of landscape in such a small area. Walking on the Isle of Wight is like walking the whole of England on your doorstep.
What’s your top tip for walkers who visit the Isle of Wight?
Our top tip for visiting walkers would be… use the bus. Not to avoid walking, but to get the most out of your walk by taking longer linear routes. Try the Tennyson Heritage Coast from Ventnor to Totland and get the Coastal Breezer back to the start. Maybe not all in one day as its quite a long route but enjoy the beautiful and unspoiled coastline and ponder why and how this coastline is changing as climate change impacts on the pace of erosion.
What’s your favourite ever walk on the Island?
It has to be the Needles Round. We’d start at the Bus Station in Yarmouth then head west through Fort Victoria Country Park through Colwell and up onto the beautiful and underrated Headon Warren. From there, round the Needles onto Tennyson Down, Freshwater Bay and back to Yarmouth along the Freshwater Way, of course we’d have to stop at the Red Lion in Freshwater and finish at the Wheatsheaf back in Yarmouth
What’s the longest walk you’ve ever done on the Island?
The longest walk was the Carnival Trail. We devised this 100-mile trail in 2014 linking all the carnival towns and villages on the Island. It was walked over five days as part of the May Walking Festival that year and there were carnival parties in each of the towns and villages as we passed through.
What’s your favourite route along the Coastal Path? (on the IOW)
There is no favourite, they are all wonderful and so very different at different times of the year.
Please tell us about your special Relay the Bay walks for the Autumn event and the routes you will take?
Relay the Bay is a celebration of the coast from Culver Down to Ventnor and the less walked hinterland routes back again. We have worked with communities in six locations along the route in Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, Godshill, Newchurch and Brading to explore what is special and unique about that particular area. Community groups in those towns and villages have then designed beautiful large pennant flags that will be relayed along the way and passed over at those six locations. So, the Sandown pennant will set off from Yaverland on Friday 11th October at 11:00 and will then be joined by the Shanklin pennant at the lunch stop before setting off to Ventnor. We are relaying around the bay and helping explain and celebrate this very special area on the Isle of Wight. We are grateful that Isle of Wight National Landscapes is supporting Relay the Bay to help more people explore and enjoy the Island
What’s the plan for Relay the Bay in the Future?
Relay the Bay is one of the taster projects for a much larger walking event entitled Beach of Dreams that will take place across England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales in May 2025. Thousands, and we mean thousands (!) of pennants are being created across all four nations and these will be carried on walks everywhere. Beach of Dreams is being led by London based arts company, Kinetika who’s creative director, Ali Pretty, has strong family ties to the Island.
Sign-up for one – or all six – Relay the Bay walks HERE.