Day 1 – Tuesday 3 April
I left home at about 9, cycling to the station to catch the 9.28 train to Romsey, from where I planned to cycle the last 11 miles to Winchester. I remember the bike feeling very heavy and somewhat more spongy than usual and wondering how it would survive the off-road sections of the ride.
The train journey was uneventful, as was the ride from Romsey to Winchester, apart from getting lost in the one-way system when I got there and taking a while to reach the tourist office where I’d arranged to meet Matt and Steve. Despite that, I got there just before 12, ahead of the other two.
They turned up about 10 minutes later. It was good to see them both again. We last saw each other in a pub in Wick after finishing LEJOG the year before last.
We spent a few minutes finding a cash-point and so on, then we set off. As it happens, I should have got myself some lunch (they’d had a big breakfast en route and so didn’t want anything, but I hadn’t). I ended up getting pretty hungry later in the day.
We got lost pretty much immediately we left Winchester. I blame Matt cos he was map-reading. We crossed the motorway over what appeared to be the correct foot-bridge (though even at that stage I remember questioning why the roads didn’t look quite right), and set off across our first field. Turns out that we were too far to the south-east and weren’t on the right path but it took us about a mile to realise. We ended up having to cut back to the South Downs Way (SDW), missing the first few miles completely.
After that, things went better, following the correct route successfully across a mix of road, rough path and field edges. The rough paths were tough going on my bike (a cyclo-cross with off-road but still rather narrow tyres) – uphill tended to be OK, but downhill was very bumpy and uncomfortable.
The weather, which had started off quite bright and sunny, got gradually worse and as we came into our first campsite at Meon Springs Fly Fishery it was cold and wet. We had a quick cup of tea to warm up (free tea and coffee in the club-house) then got our tents up. It was the first time I’d seen my tent up in the wild (I’d tried it once in the back garden at home) and it didn’t look very inviting, being a very small single-man tent with almost no headroom!
We set off for the pub, where we had a couple of pints and steak and chips (very nice). By the time we left it was dark and pissing down. None of us had proper wet-weather gear with us so we waited for about 15 minutes… eventually leaving once it had eased off a bit. The ride home was OK – though there was lots of water on the road – but I don’t think any of us got too wet.
Then straight to bed for what turned out to be a very uncomfortable night. Wet for the first half, then freezing cold for the second. I’d got into my sleeping bag without my Helly Hansen bottoms on because it was quite warm. As the night got colder I needed them but in my tent it was impossible to move to put them on without getting everything wet so I had to put up with being cold. I spent much of the second half of the night with my head inside my sleeping bag trying to keep warm 🙁
The day’s tweets
- first leg of 3-days away, cycle-camping on the #southdownsway - next stop romsey, then cycling to winchester http://t.co/9ebtjsrO
- 3 miles out of winchester and we still haven't hit the #southdownsway yet - totally lost, hot and knackered
- end of day 1 - 16 miles on the #southdownsway plus 11 miles to winchester - sounds pathetic but it's been hard work http://t.co/oxYj9B4d
- First rain - #southdownsway http://t.co/7881Zm14
Day 2 – Wednesday 4 April
Up early to a beautiful dawn – clear blue sky and lots of mist over the fly-fishing lake. Oh, and lots of ice on the tent. No wonder I’d been cold in the night!
We made a quick departure from Meon Springs – there were no facilities beyond a toilet to hang around for in any case – skipping a little section of the SDW, instead heading back to the village we’d been to last night and the village stores to get breakfast. This turned out to be a cold pasty, the only vaguely filling thing they had – yuk!
Then Steve broke some bad news. He was going to give up – worried about his health – and get a taxi back to Winchester and a train to Eastbourne where his car was. This left Matt with a problem… he needed Steve’s car at Eastbourne to get back to Winchester to pick up his own car.
The two of us decided to carry on, agreeing that we’d work out the logistics of getting home as we went.
Not the best of starts to the day.
We re-joined the SDW a bit further on, at the top of the next hill, making slow but steady progress over Butser Hill (where we videoed each other going down the long grassy slope), thru the Queen Elizabeth Country Park and beyond. By lunchtime we’d reached Cocking – not a massive distance – and went to the Blue Bell pub for lunch. We had set ourselves a target of getting to Washington by nightfall, mainly because Matt knew that the campsite there had better facilities than the previous night’s stop. Looking at the map we realised we’d never make it in time at the speed we were going. (Looking back now, I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but it’s certainly how we felt at the time). We used Matt’s iPhone to plot a road route to Washington and took it – not a bad route actually – mainly on fairly nice (flatish) back roads – though the last section on the A-somethingorother was pretty bad.
We got to the campsite by about 5pm, had a shower, put up our tents and headed for the pub. Food less good than the night before but we pre-ordered ourselves breakfast which gave us something to look forward to as we headed back to the tents.
A somewhat better night – though I woke up a second time feeling pretty claustrophobic in my tiny tent.
The day’s tweets
- Up early http://t.co/HbGA06Jm
- cold on the #southdownsway this morning - ice on the tent - plenty of blue sky for sailor's trousers now though
- blimey... it's all hills on the #southdownsway (@ Harting Hill. Another Stop And It's Hot Hot Hot) http://t.co/YGDJbzV7
- made it to a pub for lunch - weather fine so far - #southdownsway route much harder than expected though - taking a brief detour this pm
Day 3 – Thursday 5 April
Up to a grey and misty morning. We packed up and headed back to the pub for breakfast, which was actually pretty good – much better than the food the previous night. Then back onto the SDW and some lovely rolling downland (well, once we’d climbed the first bloody hill). It was the best cycling of the trip – great views to the south and north (despite the somewhat cloudy and misty conditions). Matt had a puncture hereabouts, which gave us a quick breather – though very strong and cold northly wind made it less pleasant than it might have been. I don’t think I got properly warm all morning. We passed the YHA hostel at Truleigh Hill then on to Devil’s Dyke and the pub.
Look, we were 5 miles (all downhill) from Brighton station and the route home, we knew we’d never make Eastboune given the time available (and even if we did, we’d never be able to say that we’d completed the SDW by bike because of our road section the day before)… it was a no-brainer (or seemed so at the time). We put our tails between our legs and headed for Brighton. Fixed up tickets for the return journey by train (which for me went via Southampton) and said our goodbyes.
I was home for tea by 6.30pm!
’nuff said.
The day’s tweets
- breakfast... (@ Frankland Arms) [pic]: http://t.co/XEfijDI5
- Just passing... (@ YHA Truleigh Hill) [pic]: http://t.co/pLtZAyp8
- bailing out a day early - couldn't face another night in the tent (@ Brighton Railway Station (BTN)) [pic]: http://t.co/YfFmn3iC
