Bikepacking the Secret Trails of Southern England

The Ride – https://www.strava.com/activities/15077495814

Join me on a summer bikepacking overnighter as I escape the busy streets of Bournemouth and dive into the secret gravel trails, forests, and ancient chalk roads of Southern England

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The gear i am currently using

The tent – https://youtu.be/n9GKHSf805E
Framebag – https://youtu.be/6LM3UJKDOEk
Seatpost bag – https://youtu.be/W1E_iWY6Ajo
Jones Handlebars – https://youtu.be/dhPBSdRros8
Gravel bike – https://youtu.be/Gnd_4LgTyrg
plus bike mtb – https://youtu.be/COTUOzLPbGk
gps device – https://youtu.be/BWeMmx62A9M
mtb shoes – https://youtu.be/OYVEnfXwT0k
All the gear from GNT – https://youtu.be/e5oKSoPoMk0
Vest bag – https://youtu.be/01nzgd-t550
Ortleib bar roll https://youtu.be/Uk9fLgS1ioo
Dynamo setup – https://youtu.be/SL7MhjB6Lp0
Questions answered – https://youtu.be/u1q9AEs9flE
Gb divide bike/gear- https://youtu.be/epcZ81wqFCo
Sonder looped bar – https://youtu.be/BqWGTxd2VaQ
Tarpstar tent – https://youtu.be/RcQoBdZSAb8

Ahh well the sun is still shining here in the 
UK, so I’m heading out of the seaside town of Bournemouth for a little overnight adventure. 
I’d escape the increasingly busier town with some lesser known secret trails out of Bournemouth 
and make my way down to the river stour where for a great majority of the year is flooded 
and muddy, but when the sun has been shining for a few weeks like it has been it’s a good 
little shortcut away from the traffic. As I’m using the gravel bike today I had a plan of 
hitting all the dried up gravely goodness, good thing about around these parts there is 
plenty of just that … If you know where to look. The Castleman Trailway follows much of the old 
Southampton to Dorchester railway line. The trailway takes you through some of East Dorset’s 
stunning landscape whilst also connecting a string of settlements between Ringwood and Poole. 
The Trailway is named after Charles Castleman, a Wimborne Solicitor, who was responsible for 
building the original railway line and the first to connect Dorset to the wider rail network. 
I wouldn’t be on it for long as i was heading into the forests tracks for some shade and relief 
from this sun, but not before a little playtime. After i had peddled my way through all the endless 
gravel tracks around these parts it was time to leave the trees behind and start heading out 
into the open, and that meant one thing today, time to suffer in the heat as i was heading 
into Wiltshire and the Cranbourne chase, known for open rolling countryside, where 
the trails start to get a little more lumpy. The dusty white chalk tracks, perfect for 
the gravel bike well mostly perfect. Some of these tracks might have been touched by the 
Romans would be my guess. And all that rough cobbled chalk tracks seemed to take its toll 
on my top tube bag breaking the elastic strap, so a trailside fix was needed. The only way i 
could get it back on the bike though was to mount it backwards. Wouldn’t be a bikepacking 
adventure without breaking something. And you know what else it wouldn’t 
be a bikepacking adventure without …. By the time i got back to the road things were 
really heating up. The 3pm sun was sapping my energy today, so it was time to take shelter 
again this time to eat some juicy tomatoes… riding through the woods today was perfect but 
the tree cover is short lived around the rolling country side of Wiltshire, However I could see 
in the distance my next target for some shade… Grovely Wood is one of the largest woodlands 
in southern Wiltshire, and running straight through the middle of this woods is this 
beautiful old roman road. Traversed for over 2000 years by this point. It’s a really 
beautiful place to stop and take it all in… with about 50 miles in the legs now though id 
be turning right and descending down to the famous nearby town …. Salisbury with its prominent 
Anglican cathedral including the tallest church spire in the UK Built over a relatively short 
period of time, 38 years between 1220 and 1258. As the day was now getting on it was time to 
start heading back south towards the new forest which is where i had planned to sleep tonight, 
so a few more climbs under the relentless sun, dusty gravel tracks and the last of the 
extremely bright white chalk trails, id arrive in a little village called Downton 
to stock up on a few supplies, before getting the worlds slowest draft and on towards the new 
forest, where finally the air was cooling the sun getting lower in the sky and i could set up 
the tent ready for a quiet night under the stars. With how hot it was yesterday waking up early 
in a cool mist felt amazing on the skin, and by the time i was packing up the 
tent ready to start making my way across the new forest and back to bournemouth 
the sun was shining through the trees. Leaving my camp spot behind the new forest was 
as beautiful as ever, the morning sun shining and a low mist surrounded me. But more 
importantly it was cool and refreshing… A quiet early ride through the new forest meant 
i had the place to myself, beating the traffic and heading back to my start point id make 
my way through the last of the gravel tracks and into christchurch and with that meant one 
thing. Getting my first glimpse of the harbour and the sea at Hengistbury head layers of sands, 
gravels and clays that make up Hengistbury Head were formed around 65 million years ago beneath 
a warm tropical sea. This was the beginning of a very unstable period. Movements in the earth’s 
crust created the Alps and in southern England the land surface was gently folded. Temperatures 
and sea levels fluctuated widely. Tropical seas gave way to warm lagoons and then extreme 
cold as a series of ice ages gripped the land. As i had started so early this morning i was 
happily beating the crowds, id make my way along the promenade for what is the best way to finish 
any adventure … An early morning swim in the sea.