King Alfred's
Way is a 350km circular off-road adventure route through many years of history,
connecting some of England’s most iconic sites. Sounds kinda awesome doesn’t
it?! Jamie and I (aka aDvEnTuReSqUaD) thought so and decided to cycle this
route, only we made it a 408k adventure.
We started our
adventure in Newbury (my sisters address – cheers Jane) on a Tuesday afternoon
and headed straight to the Ridgeway. The route to the Ridgeway was menace and
we had some heavy main road and associated traffic to navigate. We feared for our lives and were
determined to take a more laney way back to the start on our return.
Once on the Ridgeway we really felt like we had escaped from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The single track was awesome. Our gravel adventure had really began. We cycled much varied terrain today and throughout our adventure as a whole. We cycled gravel, chalk, mud, tarmac, woodland and thick gloopy mud too at times. We had some tough ascents and some ring-twitching bumpy descents too. On occasions we would cycle familiar tracks (including much of the Oxduro) and then there be dragons.
We stopped at the same cafe I stopped at during the Oxduro, only this time I had a tuna sandwich instead of an ice cream. Leaving the cafe we hit new wooded tracks. It wasn't long before menace struck. Menace came in the form of a couple of punctures for me. These punctures happened at non-ideal times - when the rain was drizzling and when my bike was covered in mud and gloop. Am pleased to report I did not puncture again on our whole trip.
Around 8pm we figured we should look for somewhere suitable to camp. It didn't take long for us to find an awesome spot. A small iron gate opened to a big wide field with an area of trees just inviting us to camp. We were set up in no time at all and what a beautiful spot this was.
For supper I cooked some noodles and hap a nip of Jamies gin (I think it was gin). Slept great. Cooked some lovely porridge for breakfast. Wow, day 2 was here already!
Day 2 was super tough and our pace was slow. We picked up an interesting trail quite early on - the Christmas Pie trail no less!
Wasn't long before we made a point of stopping and taking a moment to appreciate some history. We took a picture of Thors Lee in Thursley. I think this was historic, though I have no details to share. Devilish fun was had in the Devil's Punchbowl.
From Thursley we continued to cycle and hit a place called Bramshott Chase. We saw a whole bunch of MOD signs on these trails and instructed to keep away from any military debris as it could blow us to bits. Trails around here were lovely and much occupied by young DOE folk. We saw the army training too - both foot soldiers and machines flying in the air.
During this day, we cycled the North Downs Way and a little later the South Downs Way! I knew this because we saw signs at often times informing we were on the North or South Downs Way (SDW). Furthermore, both Jamie and I had cycled the SDW before on an adventure with Chris and Toll. Chris had created this earlier adventure and dubbed it 'Southern Comfort' if I remember correctly.
The SDW was a trifle menace on this occasion as we cycled it in reverse manner to last time. It was still incredibly beautiful, however, the super descent I was looking forward to was a challenging ascent. I just had to stop and take a picture where Chris and I bombed straight into the barb wire fence during the Southern Comfort (or was it discomfort) adventure!
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| Crash site! |
Around Southampton we stopped for a well deserved pub meal and a couple of pints. It was starting to get late and we knew darkness would soon follow. I asked the pub staff if we could camp in the pub garden if we carried on drinking - was informed they wouldn't mind but the locals would. We we advised we'd find plenty of camp options once we climbed to the top of the next mammoth hill that stood in our way. Hmm. We started climbing this hill, however, we were tired and sapped of energy. We were unlikely to make it to the top this night! Without further ado, we just spotted the next mediocre potential camp spot and swiftly set up camp. Jamie was zipped up in no time. The further menace happened. I spotted rats (rodents at least) in the bushes next to us. Argh! Creepy eyes and rat action! We were so tired we figured to stay put regardless. I made sure I zipped up my bivvy and took my jacket inside the bivvy as it had treats in the pockets. It took a while to drop off...
Pleased to report we both slept pretty well considering. Better yet, the rats hadn't eaten the bike tyres or nibbled at our bivvy's. Greater still was the awesome view we were granted. So nice to cook some porridge and absorb the beauty of where we were and what we could see.
No rats in the morning. Instead we saw a lovely butterfly. Later in the adventure was saw many birds of prey included an owl that flew about in the daylight hours.
As we continued our cycle we hit Salisbury. We didn't know this immediately as visibility was real poor. We cycled several km's of single-track that was seriously over grown. Was this really a well cycled route? Didn't feel like any bikes had been down here for months.
Soon, it was clear where we were. The road sign gave it away. And, then we saw the famous stones. (The stones were long and far away).
This was a lovely part of the world. The MOD certainly thought so too - they were flying chinook's in the airspace and tanks were covering the landmass. I'm not sure I'd seen so many tanks all grouped together in one go before.
I'm not sure if we should have been cycling the roads we were. Signs were instructing to stay away if red flags were flying and red flags were flying. These red flags indicated tanks were on the loose.
Leaving Salisbury we hit Devizes and saw an awesome chalk white horse on the hillside and wide-open views of rolling country side. Wasn't sure which white horse this was at the time and am still not sure now. It's facing the wrong way to be the Devizes white horse. From my Google search it looks like it could be the 'Bagging Cherhill White Horse'.
After the white horse spotting, we thought we spotted another awesome pre-historic thing. This was the long barrow at All Cannings. This was a truly awesome long barrow and I was quite blown away. That was until I realized it was built in 2014. Hardly historic, let alone pre-historic.
Shortly after long barrow visit, I think we found what I consider to be the best bivvy camp spot ever! We cycled about half-way up a big hill that had the most amazing view of the Salisbury Plains (I think). We found a big chalk cut-out in the side of this hill which provided protection from the wind. My photo's don't do this spot justice but it really was truly awesome. Once settled down to sleep, we were aroused by the thundering sound of a chinook overhead. I opened my bivvy and thought Jamie and I were in for an interesting death - the chinook looked like it was only metres above us and I thought we were the landing pad!
We didn't have a perfect sunrise in the morning, instead it was real hazy. It was still incredibly beautiful though. No starts came out during the night either. Was awesome to think about the adventure we had had thus far over a 'myti mug' of porridge.
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| Adam and Eve standing stones |
On leaving our awesome camp spot I expected a big, big climb. Surprisingly, a massive climb did not follow just a gentle ascent and then we turned off onto several km's off single-track. After no time at all we were heading to Wiltshire. When we camped last night, little did we know Avebury was only about 10k away. The first wonderful sight was saw in Avebury (Marlborough in actual fact) were the awesome standing Adam and Eve stones.
Shortly after we saw sights of Silbury Hill (the largest man-made hill in Europe) and then the wonderful Avebury Henge and Stone Circle. We spent a period of time here as it was just magical. As far as I know, this is the only stone cicrcle that has a pub in the centre of it. Shame it was closed...
So much to see in Avebury, we could have stayed here all day. Amongst the delights were West-Kennett Avenue (a parallel line of standing stones, a big henge and Jamie sat in the 'Devil's Chair'. Aces.
I'm sure we'll both visit this site again in the passage of time. It really is wonderful. One of the high-lights of our trip.
Leaving Avebury and we cycled lots of multi-terrain once again, lots of single-track, chalk, woodland, mud and the occasional bog too. After so long we cycled an open hilly area called Barbury Castle Country Park. In this park, I spotted a most unusual thing - a tree covered in snails. Had to stop and take a picture figuring my daughter Melody would just love this.
This was a hot day and finding supplies was difficult. Am pleased we managed to find a suitable pub spot in Bishopstone. Much pizza provided very necessary fuel. Supping from my pint glass I spared my niece-in-law a quick thought. Ha!
Back on bikes and it wasn't long before we were cycling on the Ridgeway again, just like we were on day 1. The Ridgeway stretches for miles and lots of wonderment is passed as you cycle along. One such wonder was another long barrow called Wayland's Smithy.
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| Uffington White Horse (Dragon) |
Not too far away from Wayland's Smithy we passed Uffington White Horse and Dragon Hill. Some say (and why would I doubt it) that Uffington White Horse was actually a dragon and the Dragon Hill was where St George slew the dragon (the chalk on the top being the dragons blood). Whatever, Jamie and I slew this dragon!
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| Dragon Hill |
The above picture was the last photo I took on our trip. From here we pretty much cycled more chalky single-track before leaving the Ridgeway good and proper and cycling a few road sections to get back to my sister's domicile.
This really was a fantastic trip. Big shout out to Alfred the Great who was a king who ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and who famously burnt some cakes - this route was inspired by him. Too bad we didn't check out King Alfred's statue in Winchester. And, of course, a big shout out and high 5 to Jamie who is half of the aDvEnTuRe SqUaD. This trip rocked. TransAlba has been postponed twice and we are hoping next year will be the year we actually cycle it - I hope it's as great as this adventure was.
Post-event and there is always a bunch of stuff that was re-remembered and forgotten to be added in the main account. Some random things to mention were as follows: I used 37mm tyres which worked just fine. Relatively few bike-a-hike sections. 3 nights and days is a perfect length of time for this trip. We met a lady who's husband had cycled this route in 24 hours. I overdosed at one particular Maccy D's. Ha!
