A 1995 stamp for India reminds him of a fabulous trip he made with his boyfriend.
Says Jonathan: “My boyfriend had been working out in India for a couple of months, keeping people who work in the HIV field up-to-date with the latest information. I was being this right-on little gay man saying ‘that’s terrible, you shouldn’t say things like that, they are human beings’. And there was lots and lots of vomiting!”
Subsequent travels abroad have been much more to his taste. I went with two girlfriends and I would get all horrified because men kept commenting on the size of their tits. Jonathan Harvey’s passport shows that he first went abroad when he was 18 on an 18-30 Club holiday to the South of France Jonathan shudders at the memory: “It was vile. Details: 01323 442667Keelman’s Way, Tyneside (pictured above) Details: 0191 477 1011 ext 3442.
Details: 01629 816200Isle of Wight round-the-island cycle route Details: 01983 862942Rutland Water Details: 01780 460705Glasgow to Inverness Details: 0117 926 8893South Downs Way, Sussex Details: 01273 625242Cuckoo Trail, Kent. “There is no reason why this pattern of cycle tourism development should not follow in the UK.”Carlton Reid is editor and publisher of ‘On Your Bike’, the new family cycle magazine, which features 55 of the best traffic-free trails in the UK.THE TEN BEST TRAFFIC-FREE TRAILS IN THE UKCamel Trail, Cornwall Details: 01208 813050Bristol to Bath Details: 0117 903 6829Monsal Trail, Peak District Details: 01629 816200Tissington Trail, Peak District. By 2000, the number of UK holiday cycling trips is predicted to reach 275 million a year. “In Burgenland in Austria approximately 66 per cent of people cycle during their holiday in the region,” he said.
A survey in the Peak District National Park found that cyclists spend an average of pounds 25 per person per day whereas the average local spend of motorists who quickly move on was only pounds 7.30 a day.According to tourism lecturer Les Lumsdon of Staffordshire University, cycle tourism spend today is tiny compared with the figure likely within 10 years. Car-borne tourists take up a lot of room, need parking space and often don’t spend as much in the local economy as cyclists. “Cycle hire has gone crazy down here and it’s all down to the massive public appetite for safe family cycling. Wadebridge and Padstow have been totally transformed by the money from cyclists.”Cycle tourism is sustainable tourism. He runs a fleet of 200 bikes and, in the summer, employs 26 people.”Cycling has really taken off in the past year,” he said.
