The South Downs Way is a 100-mile trail that runs from Winchester to Eastbourne, taking in some 11,000ft of vertical ascent as inches its way across Southern England. Here we try ‘the Double’: 200-miles, 22,000ft – in less than 24 hours.
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Right. Sit rep. Things went a little bit in Eastborne. Everyone needs a goal, be they big, small, or medium. And the South Downs Way Double has been on our radar for a couple of years now. Taking in the fiercely undulating ridges of the South Downs, we hope to cover the 200 mile route, which includes 22,000 ft of climbing in less than 24 hours. But first, we had to get the bikes ready and make sure we had enough food for the first few hours. All right. Hi, Dan. Can I just show you um my little uh food pouch and the contents thereof? Uh so, this is where I decant all my goodies. So in here you can see uh whisper bites, little sweety things, chedders. Just going to add some more whispers. You’ll find if you do your uh research that these pound for pound bits of whisper are the most calorific uh confectionary items you can buy in a supermarket. There we go. Pop them in the pouch. probably about 2,000 calories in there. So, yeah, that’ll keep me going for a bit. The first few miles were hiker bike territory. This was an exercise in patience and pacing. Going up too hard would definitely end badly. So, we heaved our bikes up the steep hills and took in the beginning of an amazing midsummer sunset. So, I’m pretty much setting now. Uh, no sleep till east. Explain your dilemma. Daniel, I have a tear in the sidewall which has been plaguing us for an hour or so. And now, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, it all was tight. Yeah, no matter punctures persisted with irritating regularity, so we threw everything we had at it. Plugs, sealant, very bad language, and a good blast of my electric pump. This proved to do the trick, and we carried on to Eastborne, unceremoniously entering the city. Welcome to Eastborne. Um, we have got here. It’s taken us a very long time due to um, how many punctures would you say, Dan? Six. Yeah, about six punctures. So, uh, yeah, not not a sort of textbook roll into, uh, Eastborne from Amberly, but, uh, we’re hoping the return leg, um, is slightly less um, yeah, without issue. Yeah, but you know, in the parliament of Gen Zed, it is what it is. Amid the punctures and the swearing and the everinccreasing nausea from consuming several kilos of sugar, we began riding back and the true beauty of the South Downs Way began to unearth itself. What a trail. All right, sit rep. Things weren’t a little bit in Eastborne. Dan just couldn’t get on top of his punctures, honestly. We were sort of plugging them every 15 minutes. Yeah. And it wasn’t really worth him carrying on. So, uh yeah, he pulled the plug, pardon the pun, and um yeah, leaving me on my own. Just got to um where am I? Fell beacon. So 20 mi back from Eastborne. Uh as you can see the view in front of me is amazing. Southeast just down there. And just over the brow of that hill is Lewis. So I might stop in the petrol station for some petrol. Um, now those piggies have got the right idea. Lay down. do nothing. Oh, while I’ve been busy toying with the idea of packing it all in and joining the pigs for a lay down, Dan had been busy in Lewis buying a new tire. I got back to the car park in Amberly only to be greeted by the man himself. Dan had made short shift of the route back from Lewis on the lanes. By now, the 24-hour challenge was well out of the window, so we decided to park it for now. That was an interesting one, wasn’t it, Dan? It was. We’ll we’ll sign off now. But that was uh that was a day. That was a day, wasn’t it, Dan? That was a good micro adventure. It was a micro adventure. Back to work. Back to work.