Come cycle round islands with me! There's a hovercraft

[fivemack]

I noticed, when I bought my Network Railcard, that the Network is quite big; indeed, the Network Railcard is valid for the trip by train and hovercraft from Cambridge to the Isle of Wight, and the saving on the return trip exceeds by some way the cost of a Network Railcard.

So, for the late-May Bank Holiday, I plan to cycle round the Isle of Wight. It's not a very big isle, it's about seventy miles all the way round, so there's time to spend one day getting there with a fair amount of time to see the naval attractions of Portsmouth, stay at a B&B in say Bembridge on Saturday evening, then a day and most of another day cycling - probably go round clockwise, so the south of the island on the Sunday, sleep at the youth hostel at Totland Bay, then round the north of the island to leave Ryde at about 5:30 on Monday and be back in Cambridge at ten.

But it would be more fun not to cycle round the Isle of Wight on my own; would anyone like to join me?

Comments

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's a little hovercraft operated by http://www.hovertravel.co.uk/ which shuttles back and forth across the Solent every half-hour. The company have three hovercraft: two hundred-passenger AP1-88 and a slightly bigger BHT130. They're made in Britain; the British hovercraft industry, while objectively kind of tiny, is one of the world leaders in hovercraftiness.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Neat. Perhaps on my next trip to the UK I will catch a ride.

gohover is a hovercraft buff (obviously) who drives small ones on rivers and lakes around here. We've only met once; I hope to catch a ride someday. Because I've worn a jetpack, but my life will not be complete until I get to ride in a hovercraft, too.