Weekend Trip – Isle of Wight, Freshwater BayThursday 12th - Sunday 15th March 2026The beautiful island across the water beckons! We’ve wanted to go back to the Isle of Wight for a while, but we’ve struggled to find suitable accommodation. So this is a bit of a compromise – the compromise being that only eight club members get to go, unless people are prepared to share the two double beds, in which case we could stretch to ten. We’ve found a very comfortable modern 5 bedroomed house just to the west of Yarmouth on the north west coast of the island, home to a number of well-respected pubs, cafés and restaurants (I’m planning to book a place called Salty’s for the Thursday evening) and a range of stylish and interesting retailers (although we’re probably less interested in those). I’ve briefly mapped out two 12 mile walks, both of which take in what is apparently a stunning riverside walk past the Georgian watermill and along the old railway tracks to Freshwater in the south. On the first day we would walk out this way and when we hit the south coast turn right take in The Needles – the most westerly point – before turning back up the coast via Alum Chine and Totland to Yarmouth. On the second day from Yarmouth we would cross in a south easterly direction over the island towards the south coast to take in the downs above Compton Bay, thence on to Freshwater before returning via said stunning riverside walk to our base. Both these walks involve a significant(ish) amount of ascent and descent – 1,300ft (day 1) and 1,300ft (day 2). There are options for shorter & flatter routes from the accommodation, if requested. On the Sunday we would do a slightly shorter walk before catching the afternoon ferry home. I will book the ferry from Portsmouth to Fishbourne for two cars, so we would need the offer of a second good sized car (I’d take our Volvo estate as the other car) to make the pricing work. It is anticipated that this could be a very popular trip but places are limited due to the nature of the accommodation. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, based on receipt of expressions of interest in reply to this post; I will set up a waiting list if all the places become “spoken for”. Your initial expression of interest will need to be confirmed within two weeks with payment of the deposit to secure your place, otherwise it will be offered to the next person on the waiting list. Approximate Cost shown below includes accommodation, 3 breakfasts, 2 evening meals, and bread / spread for lunchbox sandwiches: Group travellers: £200 Due to the cost of the ferries and related logistics at this stage I am proposing to run this trip on the basis of group travel only. That said, I am open to suggestions, especially as not all club members live in West Sussex! Deposit : £110 to HHMC with the reference IOW 2026 by Monday 12th January 2026 Please email the organiser in in the first instance to check availability and for the HHMC bank account details. |
| Organiser: Ali/Amber/Sue | email: |
| Closing date for booking: 12/01/2026 |
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| Grid reference: SZ 343 891 Post Code: PO41 0BD what3words: : ///settle.sooner.crank Coordinates: W 1.51471, N 50.7007 |