Camping Cock up in Cocking

The pain has passed and it’s time we shared some of the highs and lows of our trip along the South Downs Way. I am going to start with the camping cock up in Cocking.

Day One took 13 hours of hard pedalling (don’t ask me why – we didn’t let up any) - and despite meeting some lovely people we were all getting despondent as we neared the end of the day.

Then phone calls started to come in from our support team (problems afoot) and supporters club (which pub are you in?) which slowed us down even more AND added to the trauma.

Earlier in the day space at Graffham campsite was confirmed as ours. A nice campsite with showers and a pub nearby - wonderful - that thought had spurred us on. However when our support crew arrived they were told our tents had to be erected by 8pm or we would lose our space - because Caravan Club Rules cannot be broken under any circumstances. I'm not going to go into why our tents were not immediately put up but the long and short of it is that we lost our space and needed to find an alternative place to sleep.

On the trail we Belles could do nothing about it but pedal and hope the problem would sort itself by the time we arrived. Frantic calls were being made out of the black van but no solution had been identified by the time we arrived at Cocking.

There were plenty of fields around so Vicky and Amber went in search of a house and found a very helpful lady in a nearby cottage. Turns out this is all Cowdray estate land and she phoned the estate manager who was categoric that NO camping could be done on his land. So that was not an option. With tempers extremely frayed and potential for saying things we might regret, we turned our focus on a car park and were debating illegal camping when my brother Rob (supporters club coming to join us for a quick drink) declared the problem solved.

Rob and the Bluebell pub in Cocking had, between them, got it all sorted. 10 minutes later (at 10pm) we found ourselves pitching camp in the dark, in a long grassed field, in the rain, for a night of ‘wild camping’ courtesy of an elderly farmer who (as Rob put it) quite fancied the idea of 4 lovely ladies sleeping in his field overnight. He is such a salesman that boy!

As tents were pitched by all hands (including Heather and Tom my niece and nephew who impressively got one tent up all by themselves) Suzy and Rob went in search of food - which they found at the local Spar. (It was another downer to find that the Spa (reportedly along the road) turned out to be a Spar!).

So it was soggy sandwiches in the back of the van rather than a hot tub and sauna before a quick drink at the Bluebell (with their ladies loos spookily labelled ‘Belles’ - it was meant to be) followed by a second night of less than comfortable, cold, sleeping with rain a'drumming on the tent and Vicky providing my night time 'entertainment'.

Next morning, on discovery that we had not, after all, died from hyperthermia in the night, we dragged ourselves out of bed (and then we all dragged Amber out) for another day of fun on the trail - starting with a breakfast of scrambled eggs on bread and coffee in the car park.  

‘Training’ it to Winchester followed by ‘bunk housing’

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!!

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.

Pollicott ‘Pikeys’ to hit the South Downs

Despite sterling work by our experienced accommodations manager, Vicky, it is now clear there is none to be had, at a price we can pay.

Right from the start it was looking bad with the Winchester YHA closed down. Then B&B prices began to reveal an alarming fact: cycling The South Downs Way is going to be NO budget trip. It’s a minimum £50 per person per night even in the most (apparently) simple of abodes.

But wait...enter our own super hero - Steve – a man with a plan yearning to become a man with a van.

The plan? - said van, complete with a magnificent support team and amazing logistics, will transport our tents, packs, pots and pans over hill and dale so that we can go self-sufficient. Sorted.

With decision made, Steve was fast on the case calling local van hire companies to agree a fair price. And it seems the plan will become reality. The Belles trip is to become a Pollicott community travellers charabanc mini-break with plenty of room for anyone who wants to join us. Even Des gave the offer fair consideration until he realised he would be on cat duty. He’s looking forward to the welcome home party instead at Gatehangers.

Clearly, we are all very excited – the van adds an entire new dimension to our adventure. We can cycle and cycle all day, get picked up in the van and travel in (some kind of) style to any campsite that will have us. As free spirits we will be in our element (or open to them anyway) and are so looking forward to the freedom of the open road, skies and hopefully not heavens.

Obviously we do not intend to be just any Pikeys. Menus and knicker packing spreadsheets still need to be worked on which means...oh no, oh yes...another planning session!

The South Downs Way – 10th-12th June 2011 – bring on the Pikeys on their Bikeys!

On June 10/11/12 the Pollicott Belles will ride again...

Setting a date could be a bigger challenge than them there hills of the south themselves. Aside from a small matter of training, it takes a surprising amount of planning and effort to get four gals, four bikes and four sets of kit ready to do a long distance cycle ride so planning has started early.

We need support for home life commitments, travel and logistics on route so on one very chilly Winter evening last week we were looking forward to the sunshine of early Summer:

• Several diaries were carefully consulted and coordinated
• The Trainline.com was checked and checked again
• Car capacities were investigated
• Budget accommodation options were identified
• Follow up negotiation was agreed to be had with employers

Finally with all threads pulled together our window of opportunity was narrowed down to 10/11/12 June 2011 and it cannot be weather permitting!

Whatever the weather, we four Belles are travelling to Winchester by train on Thursday 9th June. We will be staying at the City Mill YHA at the start of the South Downs Way. We will be setting off on our mission AM Friday 10th June and finishing as early as possible on Sunday 12th June. We are still not sure how we will get home yet but several options are identified.

Last year we had a fabulous, pick up and drop, luggage service from our 'boys' but this year, due to life commitments, we are having to err on the side of the possible need for self-sufficiency. The plan is to pack one pannier each - one! Luggage priorities will be puncture repair and maintenance equipment, first aid kit, wet weather gear, phones and snacks. So clean knickers, toothbrushes and deodorant will be a luxury it seems.  And, definitely NO 'going out gear' or make-up (imagine!). Hope remains that someone will take pity on us and offer to meet us on route with (at least) a change of undies!

There is a lot of effort going into our adventure so please, if you can, support us in our efforts. Ideally help us raise some hard cash for Helen & Douglas House. Which brings me on nicely to remind you that next week is Ashendon Bingo night (8pm, 3rd March, Gatehangers Ashendon) and we are hopeful for an even bigger result than the last one.

And that's a fact...

Plenty of people take on challenges for charity and, compared to some, the South Downs Way may feel a little tame. Remember this however: we are busy girls with busy lives, squeezing our training in around careers, families, horses, voluntary policing, regular injury and bad weather. Also remember Alex had never cycled until the very end of 2009. On top of that the South Downs Way is no walk in the park - it's long, there are hills and pleny of distractions along the way.

Then, please put the following facts into that context and give us a little credit - you can do that at: www.justgiving.com/pollicottbelles2011 or at one of our forthcoming events.

The South Downs Way National Trail starts at City Mill, Winchester and finishes at the Western End of Eastbourne Promenade. I'm not sure we'll be up to promenading at the end.

How Far? The South Downs Way is 100 miles long  - we Belles have a slight advantage because the bridleway route is 4 miles shorter (though navigational error is bound to sort that out).

How High? in total there is 13,600 foot of ups (and downs) - we are currently climbing 170 foot on a typical training ride - so in 2 days we will be doing that 80 times over! Butser Hill at 900ft and Ditchling Beacon at 814ft will be the killers. A little (a lot) more hill training is needed methinks.



The elevation Profile of one of our training routes

  

The  elevation Profile of the South Downs Way

How Long will it Take? On average it takes 3 days to complete the South Downs Way on a bike - we have to complete it in 2 days (2 half days and one full day).

The Sights? Winchester Cathedral, Chanctonbury Ring, Devils Dyke, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age monuments, Long Man of Wilmington, Seven Sisters, Beachy Head, blue butterflies and all 14 of Andy Goldsworthy’s strategically erected chalk stones (which start at Cocking) sorry!

The sights will be the subject of more blogs so please come back to learn more about our ride and training.

Trouble with Conkers in Cocking

Time to take a quick look at some of the places we will visit along The South Downs Way.

First I found that the subject of an earlier blog: Cheesefoot Head is popular with US forces (as well as UFO’s and crop circles). It is a vast natural amphitheatre where, in April 1944, American troops gathered to see Joe Louis, the heavyweight champion of the world and where General Eisenhower addressed the American troops prior to D-Day.

Then on to Uppark House a National Trust property just outside Petersfield (and not far from where the Miller family of Liphook live). This house sits atop what was, by far, the longest & steepest hill on the London to Paris cycle ride I did back in 2009 (and which was the pre-cursor to all this Pollicott Belles cycling stuff). HG Well's mother was housekeeper there too - is that another UFO connection?

Next comes a section of the route called: Harting to Cocking and somewhere on the section is Didling Hill.

Starting with Cocking (well would you expect anything less of me). I googled it and (eventually among other things) I found the delights of the Cocking Community Website. The breaking news is that the petanque pitch and childrens play area are closed for the health and safety reason of dangerous conker trees. And (just when I was just thinking the place does not wholly live up to it’s name) I found 2 menu choices fabulously entitled ‘Column Unveiling’ and ‘Cocking Views’ and here I found this which I loved (click the link): http://cocking.org/index.php?option=com_morfeoshow&task=view&gallery=2&Itemid=53

Harting’s website just can’t compete so I am going to move on to: Didling Hill. I think this is another feature of London to Paris. We cycled past a truly beautiful church located in a field and (Victoria and I) spent a few hours afterwards marvelling at how lucky we were to be seeing such wonderful places on our route. I think this is the one – St Andrews, Didling Hill:

Suffice it to say that I am now so looking forward to this cycle challenge and can only hope that we get to see all these fabulous places in glorious sunshine! I'm taking a detour round Cocking to find that column!!

ello, ello, ello - what have we 'ere then?

Well, we had all agreed that it was about time I should introduce myself and start contributing to the blog - having taken up the very kind offer of becoming the 4th Pollicott Belle during the summer months! My name is Amber, I'm 19 and although strictly speaking I'm not a 'Pollicott Belle' (as I live 5 minutes down the road in Westcott) I'm a cousin of Vicky's other half, so have known Vic, Sian and Alex for years now.

My involvement with the Belle's started back in April/May time when I had taken up a bit of running in preparation for a fitness test to join the Police as a Special Constable. After successfully getting through the bleep test and weights, I decided that, (contrary to my previous belief) I quite enjoyed this exercise lark, and so Sian took lead role of Mrs Motivator by inviting me to join the Belles on various cycles over the summer months. I jumped at the chance, dusted my bike off and since then I've been joining in with training as often as I can. Having heard the stories and seen the pictures from their first challenge for Macmillan Cancer Support in June, I realised that all of the hard work the Belles had put in had paid off and they really had all enjoyed it. As well as being very proud to call them all friends, I was now convinced that I would love to be involved in doing something so challenging for a great cause.

When Sian, Alex and Vicky told me that the chosen charity for the 2011 challenge was going to be Helen and Douglas House, I have to admit that although I'd heard of them, I wasn't entirely sure of what it was that they did. So, I jumped straight onto the Internet and did some research. After reading several stories and browsing over their website I was so excited that we'd be doing something to contribute to the truly amazing work that the hospice does to help terminally ill children. It's given me more motivation and since then I've continued with cycling and running, am half a stone lighter (and will hopefully be more so by the time we start off for the challenge) and honestly cannot wait until the weather picks back up and we can go full steam ahead into preparation and more fundraisers.

Lastly, just a big thanks to all of the 3 Belles for inviting me in, waiting for me at the tops of more than a few killer hills and being so supportive! I hope everyone has a great Christmas, and no doubt the blog will be hearing more from me in the near future :-)

Amber.

Places We Will Discover - Cheesefoot Head

We have Dinah Mason to thank for pointing out the fabulous name of one of our waypoints on the South Downs route. I was intrigued so googled to find out if there really was such a place.

Cheesefoot Head is a natural ampitheatre and place of outstanding beauty - wow, nice, they have a horse box parking area as well. However, it is also a place of special scientific interest (and not for it's name). It is, it seems, regularly the site of crop circles. The best bit is that, in 1989, there was the Cheesefoot Head incident involving the first ever crop circle investigation unit and UFO's. Google it if you dare - there were news paper articles and all sorts. The whole team experienced strange things - a feeling of force, an inability to break free, the head of a small ET, people moving at an angle or moving backwards and so on.

But, they ain't seen nothing yet - the Belles are on their way and UFO's have nothing on us. We have witnessed some UFO incidents ourselves - Alex on several occasions and has been known to land in unidentifiable circular objects (OK it was a patch of stinging nettles but it was strangely circular). Vicky and Sian have, what seems now, a suspiciously common denominator in the form of Isalda who was there to swerve and pick us up in our most dramatic of flights. Vix managed an unusual levitation from her bike on the Chilton road and Sian took to the air over Little London in Oakley. Isalda is, of course, an alien and on both occasions we felt the need to 'phone home'. It's all coming together now - Pat Delgado and Colin Andrews may wish to make a return trip in June for scientific interest as the Belles land at Cheesefoot.

In the meantime can anyone give us lessons in crop circle making - we feel the force!