South Downs Way - June 2011 - Belles on Bikes

Finally the big day arrived. Let the challenge begin. I'm going to give you here an overview of our journey and a brief insight to our experience. Over the next couple of weeks I hope all four of us will drop in to the blog to share a few tales of the unexpected.

The adventure started on Thursday evening when 3 Belles travelled by train (there is a story already here) to Winchester and then on to Marwell Activity Centre bunkhouse (another story).

Belle 4 (that's me) hot footed it back to Pollicott from Brighton and travelled by car (thanks to Andy) to said bunkhouse - together with 4 bikes. Wine was waiting for my arrival and we enjoyed a late evening relaxation before nestling into our plastic sheets for some pre-cycling rest/recuperation.

8.15am Friday 10th June - we left the bunkhouse. To get to the South Downs Way we had to cycle a good 8 miles, up hill and down vale. We stopped for coffee and bacon/egg sandwiches in a little tea shop in Twyford on the recommendation of a friendly 'passed by' with greyhound.

We started the South Downs Way at 10.30 - it took us a while to find the start on our map  - ominous? yep!

By mid morning it was clear that this was no Ridgeway cycle which was a cruise in comparison - the hills were bigger, and the terrain was more varied and extreme. High spirits turned to quiet contemplation as we trundled on at not much more than a walking pace. A quick pub stop lifted us a little until we were (soon) joined by the friendly walker we had passed some time back. We left resigned to the fact that today would be a long one. It was. With just a few short breaks we were cycling for 13 hours!

9.20pm Friday 10th June - arrived at Cocking. This has another entire blog worth of story waiting to be told.

7.30am Saturday 11th June - departed Cocking following a hearty breakfast of 'frambled' egg sandwich lovingly cooked for us over an open 1970's camping gaz stove by our van based support team Steve and Annalise. Our destination today is Ditchling Beacon (anyone who has cycled London to Brighton will understand how daunting this was). Once again it was a long day. Oh and we got lost - there is yet another tale of high emotion related to this. Luckily, waiting not far away was our, now extended, support team and a bright green car arrived to save us from ourselves as we sat by the road wondering where we actually were.

By 8pm we were at our camp site, with warm showers, chips and wine all round to cheer us up.

7.30 am Sunday 12th June - we left Ditchling Beacon in the right direction on our final leg (or is that last legs?) toward Eastbourne. A poorly Alex and mid-morning horizontal rain meant we were very pleased to meet up with our support team in Bo Peep car park for an early lunch. Then we pushed on through the last 9 miles, which included 2 extremely long and steep hills, for a champagne celebration at the Tourist Information Centre with an even more extended support group of family and friends.

So, that's the general shape of it - a very hard, emotionally draining 3 day trip from which there is so much more to share that I hope you can find time to drop by and read all about it over the next few weeks.