The day started early as we were aiming for 9am start from Winchester, so a 6:30 start was in order. Luckily we had managed to arrange a lift by car, rather than getting the first train out of Brighton to avoid the rush hour cycle restrictions, which would have meant leaving even earlier.

The South Downs Way is a 160 km (100 mile) bridleway (off-road), stretching from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in East Sussex. We were going to cycle the route in three days starting in Winchester. I’ve never spent much (any?) time in Winchester, but it looks like a very old and historic town and deserves a longer visit.

However, we knew we had a long first day and wanted to get going quickly. We gathered at the official start of the route – the King Alfred The Great statue. We puzzled over the significance of the statue and our vague knowledge of history to ask “who burnt the cakes” ?…..

This was the meeting point for the rest of the group. Andy who I travelled up with from Brighton, who largely organised the trip, with another Andy who travelled down from London and Ian who had driven up from Bournemouth. Ian had been a teacher, and was able to shed more light on King Alfred and in particular the burnt cakes question.

We quickly left the town and before long started climbing the first hill, up a quiet country lane – except for the postman in his van that kept leapfrogging us – and then onto nice chalk tracks. This path also kept ascending and gave us a good insight into the 4,150 metres of climbing that was in front us to Eastbourne.

It was really good to get out into the countryside, and open fields. It seemed that the main crop of the area is poppies! It was also good to test the bikes out, as while Andy and I were on gravel bikes the others were on mountain bikes, but both coped with the first hills admirably. Compare with the others I had more luggage and think I may have brought too much stuff (I must be scarred by cycling in Iceland), but at the time I thought the others didn’t have enough!

It was really pleasant cycling, up and down small hills on good paths, and I think confidence was building that this was going to be a very nice weekend cycling. The bird life was amazing with a Barn Owl flying across our path, Skylarks everywhere and it was good to have some birdwatching knowledge from Ian. Although I’m still not sure the way to tell the difference between a Swallow, and a Swift – is that Swifts are “a bit swifty”.

Anyway confidence was building on the route, together with our abilities, until we hit the first mud. Really thick, particularly sticky and once it picked up some stray grass it created a solid mass, gumming up anything it attached to. It was easy to see how medieval craftsmen came upon the idea of wattle and daub as a building material, it was probably invented as they cycled between building jobs.

It was absolutely energy sapping, pushing the bikes through the mud, but even when we got to a mud free section, it was all uphill and the bikes were too heavy to pedal. A ritual of scraping off handfuls of mud and prodding sticks into the the jammed up bits, only to be repeated 100 metres further on. My dynamo wires were a particular magnet, and attracted loads of difficult to remove mud around the tiny wires.

Eventually we reach the top of the hill which turned out to be Old Winchester Iron Age Hill Fort. We were too tired to notice the earth embankments, it was only when some one asked where we were, that we noticed. It was during this stage we passed a lady “ultra runner”, who passed us on one muddy bit – and our paths would continue to cross all day – proving the fastest way along the South Downs is by foot!

Luckily the worst of the mud seemed to be over as we headed into some quaint Hampshire countryside with thatched cottages, more walkers and some picturesque lakes. We even managed to refill our water bottles at a fishing cafe, as the hot weather, the mud and the hills were beginning to take its toll. We pushed on towards Queen Elizabeth Country Park, where the route crosses the A3, but not before passing the lady runner again – it was quite unbelievable how far she had managed to get in front of us. However, she was going to catch us again!

We got within sight of the A3 and there was a lovely green hill heading down to the road, it had manicured short grass, and looked like a smooth ride down. However, as I headed off first it was clear there were lots of little steps in the grass, and it was far steeper than it looked. I took it easy on the gravel bike with no front suspension, and my drop bar brake levers which need special hand muscles to operate. It was much quicker on a mountain bike! Andy reported that Ian came past him at double his speed, and by the time he came past me he was pretty much upside down, crashing into the grass with his bike on top. It looked a bad crash, but he was talking and moving – so clearly fine – and managed to cycle down to the bottom of the hill to look at injuries. He was battered and bruised, and not really able to cycle another 25 miles on unknown terrain to our accommodation. After considering cycling to Petersfield railway station, it was decided to stop at the Country Park information centre to see about a taxi, but once the lady in the centre heard about the crash, she insisted that he dial 111 – NHS Direct. The person doing the diagnosis was concerned enough to send an ambulance, and when they arrived thought he should be taken to hospital. Ian insisted that we carry on, so we were down to three! It turned out that Ian waited a while to be seen at hospital, was declared badly bruised and sent home.

Just after Ian’s fall the runner came past again – she was heading to South Hartington about another 10 km east – and we never passed her again – the bikes are slowing us down!

The hills continued, one in particular was made worse with a navigational error, and resulted in a really big push up and over a massive hill. The views from the top were exceptional, however the bridleway skirted around the bottom so all the pushing was unnecessary. We were navigating mainly using the SDW signposts, and I had also bought a new gadget after getting terribly lost on my last attempt (not lost but continually ending up at the bottom of hills I should have been at the top of). The Beeline cycle compass (or little arrow as we called it) just gives you the direction and distance to the next “way point”, but its only as good as the way-point data.

The final miles were generally along nice chalk paths. We were very tired and there was some discussion that we get onto the roads to get to Amberley quicker, as time was getting on. Andy had originally booked a table in the pub in Amberley for 6:30, which after Ian’s crash we had moved to 7:30 and even that was looking impossible. Anyway the tracks looked good and were a direct route, so we kept to the South Downs Way – needing the emergency Jelly Babies to keep everyone’s spirits up. I was further handicapped as the sole has fallen off one of my cycling shoes, meaning I couldn’t clip in and my foot kept skating off the pedal – so the last few miles were good fun!

The sight of Amberley was really welcome, as we cycled down in the evening sun. It was about 8:15, so thought we would order food in the pub, find the bunkhouse for a quick shower, and then head back to the pub.

The pub had saved our table, didn’t seem to mind three scruffy cyclists, but the kitchen was closing in 30 minutes. So we had no choice but to settle in for the evening and worry about our accommodation later. The first (and second, and third) pint was beautiful and really well deserved. We had covered 78 km, climbed 1,800 metres and it had taken nearly 11 hours. The food was excellent – sausage and mash was perfect, and as I’d (according to my App) burnt nearly 4,500 calories, puddings were definitely in order.

We eventually left the pub, and the bunkhouse was waiting for us. A really nice series of rooms, share kitchen in converted flint farm buildings. We all slept really well, knowing that we had cycled half the south downs way. We had two days to cycle the rest, but on track that we have more knowledge, so hopefully day two will be easier, but had done only about a third of the total climbing.