Our epic adventure started on Thursday evening with myself (Vicky), Alex and Amber being chauffeured by Andy in the ‘lean green machine‘ to Oxford station. On arrival I was both nervous and excited as to what was in store for us over the following few days!!
We boarded our train and set off and I took the opportunity to take a look at Alex’s newly acquired book on ‘Mounting Biking the South Downs Way’, maybe ‘ignorance is bliss’ would have been a better option to take because the insight into what was to behold us was somewhat daunting to say the least!! Whilst Alex are I were chatting excitedly about our forthcoming adventures, Amber was engrossed in her I-phone apps and listening to her headphone music!!
Apart from a slight delay in approaching Reading station and a very abrupt stop and swerving along the track further down the line we had a uninterrupted journey to Winchester station. On arrival our 1st mission was to find a McDonalds to combat our ravenous appetites, we were working on the theory that whatever we eat now would easily be worked off in the next few days!! After wandering the streets for what seemed like an eternity with our rucksacks, looking like the archetypal tourist, we eventually found those famous ‘golden arches!’ our ‘meal’ didn’t even touch the sides and we had polished everything off in about 10 minutes!!
Our next mission was to try and find a taxi to take the 7 miles from Winchester to Marwell Activity Centre, our 1st nights accommodation. We wandered seemingly aimlessly around the streets of Winchester searching vainly for any taxi’s (why is it never like in the films where you can just hail a cab virtually anywhere!!) the only thing we could find was a tramp inside a huge Biffa bin searching for food scraps and a rather amorous middle-aged couple around the back of an Iceland store!! I was starting to panic a little and I was certainly out of my comfort zone (a far cry from my cosy Pollicott!!) Eventually we found a taxi and were overjoyed when he said he could take us to our destination, so we bundled in. During the journey I was trying to take in the route as I knew that we had to cycle from Marwell back into Winchester the following morning to start the South Downs, I was somewhat alarmed when we went on the M3 for a junction, but I was quietly confident that there would be an alternative route!!
On arrival at Marwell we were met by 2 young ladies who showed us to our exclusive ‘bunk house’. There were 4 of us and the bunk house slept 10 so we had plenty of room, but I did feel transported back to my school trip days though when faced with a room full of metal bunk beds and plastic mattress covers!! After choosing our favourite beds we waited eagerly for the arrival of Sian and Andy (again in the lean green machine), but MOST importantly our bikes on the top of said machine!! Sian travelled separately to us as she had had a very important work commitment in Brighton that day and Andy had very kindly offered to bring her and our bikes directly to us!! We barely had allowed Sian through the door to our exclusive bunk house before we cracked open the wine (only a small glass) and once consumed we settled down for the night all cosy in our sleeping bags with our bikes safely stashed by our bedsides! We felt like naughty school girls giggling in our sleeping bags and after seeing Sian’s electric blue with yellow binding sleeping bag we decided that they must have made it out one of Anneka Rice’s old ‘Challenge Anneka’s suits!! I drifted off to sleep listening to Amber humming the ‘Challenge Anneka’ theme tune!!
We boarded our train and set off and I took the opportunity to take a look at Alex’s newly acquired book on ‘Mounting Biking the South Downs Way’, maybe ‘ignorance is bliss’ would have been a better option to take because the insight into what was to behold us was somewhat daunting to say the least!! Whilst Alex are I were chatting excitedly about our forthcoming adventures, Amber was engrossed in her I-phone apps and listening to her headphone music!!
Apart from a slight delay in approaching Reading station and a very abrupt stop and swerving along the track further down the line we had a uninterrupted journey to Winchester station. On arrival our 1st mission was to find a McDonalds to combat our ravenous appetites, we were working on the theory that whatever we eat now would easily be worked off in the next few days!! After wandering the streets for what seemed like an eternity with our rucksacks, looking like the archetypal tourist, we eventually found those famous ‘golden arches!’ our ‘meal’ didn’t even touch the sides and we had polished everything off in about 10 minutes!!
Our next mission was to try and find a taxi to take the 7 miles from Winchester to Marwell Activity Centre, our 1st nights accommodation. We wandered seemingly aimlessly around the streets of Winchester searching vainly for any taxi’s (why is it never like in the films where you can just hail a cab virtually anywhere!!) the only thing we could find was a tramp inside a huge Biffa bin searching for food scraps and a rather amorous middle-aged couple around the back of an Iceland store!! I was starting to panic a little and I was certainly out of my comfort zone (a far cry from my cosy Pollicott!!) Eventually we found a taxi and were overjoyed when he said he could take us to our destination, so we bundled in. During the journey I was trying to take in the route as I knew that we had to cycle from Marwell back into Winchester the following morning to start the South Downs, I was somewhat alarmed when we went on the M3 for a junction, but I was quietly confident that there would be an alternative route!!
On arrival at Marwell we were met by 2 young ladies who showed us to our exclusive ‘bunk house’. There were 4 of us and the bunk house slept 10 so we had plenty of room, but I did feel transported back to my school trip days though when faced with a room full of metal bunk beds and plastic mattress covers!! After choosing our favourite beds we waited eagerly for the arrival of Sian and Andy (again in the lean green machine), but MOST importantly our bikes on the top of said machine!! Sian travelled separately to us as she had had a very important work commitment in Brighton that day and Andy had very kindly offered to bring her and our bikes directly to us!! We barely had allowed Sian through the door to our exclusive bunk house before we cracked open the wine (only a small glass) and once consumed we settled down for the night all cosy in our sleeping bags with our bikes safely stashed by our bedsides! We felt like naughty school girls giggling in our sleeping bags and after seeing Sian’s electric blue with yellow binding sleeping bag we decided that they must have made it out one of Anneka Rice’s old ‘Challenge Anneka’s suits!! I drifted off to sleep listening to Amber humming the ‘Challenge Anneka’ theme tune!!
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