Ryde Esplanade to Southsea Hoverport – Hovertravel Hovercraft

Having enjoyed a day on the Isle of Wight exploring both the Island Line and the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, it was time to head back to the mainland. On my way to the island I had caught the Wightlink Catamaran from Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head, and so for my journey back across the Solent it only seemed right to try out the competitor, Hovertravel. Whilst Wightlink’s Catamaran is pretty speedy, Hovertravel do one better, with their Solent crossings being operated by the UK’s only commercial Hovercraft.

Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pier Head – Wightlink Catamaran

A bit of a shorter post for the final one of the year, partly due to struggling to find time to write in a packed December schedule and partly as I’m sure you’ll all be busy with the festivities so won’t have much time to read my musings. Nonetheless, the show must go on and so this post is all about my journey onboard Wightlink back in August, as I travelled from Portsmouth Harbour across the Solent to Ryde Pier Head on (well just off) the Isle of Wight.

WAT-WEY South Western Railway – 1st Class

The August Bank Holiday weekend saw me without any firm plans and, wanting to do a trip somewhere but not wanting to pay the peak air fares, I decided to visit some friends in Sussex, whilst building in some rail days of the south coast whilst I was down there. Having previously ticked off the majority of the line between Brighton and Portsmouth, Dorset and the Solent were my targets and so on the Bank Holiday Saturday, my trip started at London Waterloo with a South Western Railway (SWR) service to Weymouth.

The Levenmouth Rail Link – Scotland’s Newest Railway

On Sunday 2nd June 2024 the newest part of Scotland’s railway opened to scheduled passenger services, with the eight-mile Levenmouth branch line from the ‘Fife Circle’ to Leven re-opening to passengers after a 55-year hiatus. Just over three months later, on Tuesday 3rd September, I made my way to Edinburgh’s Haymarket station to start my own journey to visit the line and tick off Scotland’s two newest stations.

Exploring the East Coast – East Linton & Edinburgh

And so its here, the final part of Exploring the East Coast, my series where I’ve visited every station on the East Coast Mainline (ECML). From the major stations of London Kings Cross, York and Newcastle, to the small rarely used stations of Acklington, Chathill, Pegswood and Widdrington, there were just two stations left to tick off and in this post we’ll visit both. Unlike the majority of the other posts where I’ve visited the stations on the same day, or at least with only a short gap, life meant that I visited the first of these two stations in February 2024 and the final station of the series in September 2024.

Imber by Hastings

Back in August, we headed south to Tonbridge one Friday after finishing work to stay a couple of nights in the Kentish market town. Despite the town having plenty to see and do in the vicinity, we weren’t staying in Kent to do any of that, we were staying to enable us to get an early start and leave the Garden of England by way of doing something a bit different. Saturday 17th August was the day in 2024 when old London buses took over the town of Warminster and the nearby Salisbury plain and so we were heading to Imber, by Hastings!