The Island Where I Live .....

As much as I hate this lockdown & the strange times that we are living in right now, this beautiful island in Hampshire UK looks so utterly gorgeous right now! Hayling Island is a favoured holiday destination for many families, Especially people wanting to escape the busy towns & cities in the surrounding area, it is also in easy reach of London. Hayling is a small island nestled between Portsmouth & Chichester, looking out at sea you can see the equally beautiful but bigger, Isle of Wight.
You can only access the island by road bridge or boat, meaning that in the warmer months traffic can be very busy & island residents said on realise that extra time is needed when moving on & off the island. Tourism is a major part of Island life & is what keeps the local businesses going, so putting up with traffic is something you have to accommodate & accept! Lucky for me I don’t drive. The first photo is the road bridge to enter the island, at Langstone Harbour.

 The next 2 photographs are of Haylings longest unbroken beach, which I am very happy to say has been granted Blue Flag status!  Most of the beaches on Hauling Island are shall & pebble, but there are a few pockets of sanded beach.

The next photo shows a photo from the other side of the island , with the inlets leading into beautiful Chichester Harbour, this is a one of the protected areas & attended by various association's which include the RSPB.org, Heritage Trust, Langstone & Chichester Harbours Trust & many more conservation organisations. It really is a wonderful place to live & no 2 walks are ever the same.
We also have a lot of water sports on the island, in fact the sport of windsurfing began in Hayling Island, here is an expert from the Hayling Windsurfing & Water sports site. Hayling Island has an annual Windsurfing weekend & is a spectacular event, wonderful to watch!

"Hayling Island’s connection with windsurfing is a long and fruitful one. When young Peter Chilvers attached a freely rotating mast and sail to a makeshift board in 1958 he set in motion a chain of events that still resonates today. Back then Pete’s chosen windsurfing area was close to Fishery Creek – these days you can find windsurfers out having a blast anywhere there’s watery access."

I hope you have enjoyed reading this little insight into where I live & why my blog is called Island Creativity 🌴