I took an opportunistic day off work and cycled the 90km to Eastbourne on the south coast of England from my home near Croydon.
Along the way I came across The Cuckoo Trail (thanks to Komoot’s route planner) which I’d never heard of before, a 10.4 mile multi use path that connects Heathfield and Polegate. What a new experience!
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/find-a-route-on-the-national-cycle-network/cuckoo-trail/
I also made a pitstop at a new cafe to me along the way, the Deer Park Cafe in Eridge and very nice it was too!
https://www.thedeerparkcafeeridge.com/
Chapters:
00:12 Intro
01:12 Why Eastbourne?
03:06 The Weald of Kent
03:40 The Food of the Gods
05:01 Groombridge Station
05:11 The Deer Park Cafe
07:55 The Cuckoo Trail
10:19 I Can See The Sea!
11:10 Wrap Up & Ride Stats
Link to Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/15376515764
Hope you enjoy the video, please do drop a like if you do and let me know in the comments anywhere else I should visit. I’m up for doing more of these point to point rides if there’s decent trains home!
Be lucky!
[Music] Good morning everyone. [Music] So I’m back out on the bike. It is a Thursday morning. So, I took a cheeky little day off from work and decided that in the spirit of keeping doing new things, I was going to take me and my bike and ride down the coast. So, I plotted a little 85 km route down to Eastborne where I’m going to get the train home. Sods law is gray, overcast, spots of rain and windy. [Music] So, why Eastborne, you may ask? Well, Brighton’s been done on it a lot of times. And the the route down to Eastborne look quite nice. Uh out through Eden Bridge, which is where I am now, about 20k in, just over 20k in, uh through Heaver, down over the Kent Wield and then back into East Sussex and into Eastborne. Um, it also has a direct train to East Cordon which makes it easy for me to get home and it has a natural stopping point which is the Cadence Cycle Cafe which is by the looks of it almost on the seafront. So, not wanting to go to Brighton again. Eastborne just down the road seemed like a fairly logical choice. Yeah, I planned in a stop about halfway down on the chem. A place called Deer Farm Park, I think it was called. It got good reviews on Kimoot from cyclists. So, we’ll stop there. If it’s no good, I’ve got a Rice Krispy Squares in my pocket. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] I’ve dispenseed with the Gile the humidity over the last half an hour um increased quite a lot especially I felt it going up that first climb that was just quite unexpected cuz I hadn’t paid attention to my Garmin. So, just uh having a little stop because I saw a view over the Kent Wield like that. It’s beautiful. Beautiful out here. It’s so quiet. There’s no better thing than a Rice Krispies squares caramel chocolate. 28 g of carbs, 79p. What’s not to love? [Music] Well, I think I’m just under about about 8K from the Deer Farm Cafe, which is my stopping point. I have to say I am looking forward to a little sit down and maybe a coffee before I get on my way. Um when I do stop I’ll be about halfway there. So that’s not bad going. I think this bit coming up gets a bit uh a bit lumpier. Few more hills in it. I’ve not been out the big ring yet. So, uh, yeah, definitely a point to, um, to get a little sit down and a little rest before the second half of the ride. But I’ve enjoyed it so far. It’s warming up. The sun’s been out a couple of times. So, uh, yeah, all good. All good. Feeling good. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Well, I’m about 53k into my ride, so I’ve got about 30 to go. I stopped at the uh the deer deer farm cafe about 10k ago, but it’s right on the right in the middle of a climb. And while that was welcome relief, it didn’t really bode very well for me videoing everything when I got out of the uh out of the cafe. So I left it a little bit longer uh and and completed the two sort of hills that were right in the vicinity. I don’t know if it’s picking up on the camera, but the wind is picking up as they said it would. Uh, so I’m hoping to uh make a bit more speed to Eastborne. Now, the cake I had was a raspberry and pistachio cake. Was very nice, very good indeed. Very moist. And I had a nice caramel latte to go with it. Although, if I had one criticism, probably could have done with a double shot of caramel. Uh, but overall, that is a good place to stop. I like that place. And I’ve enjoyed this ride so far. It’s been really, really pretty and really quiet, which is lovely. I will definitely do this again. Uh but yeah, cafe rating for that service was great. Friendly lady, really nice. Um overall, I will give the deer farm cafe a very solid 8 out of 10. Very good indeed. Well, I’ve just done about 5k on a a road, which wasn’t ideal. That’s probably the uh the bit that I’ve enjoyed least of this trip so far. If I did it again, I’d have to look and see if there was any other way to get around that bit of it. I’m not sure there is. I think it’s probably just the straight road into Eastborne. But I managed to get off it and onto a uh onto a bit of a back road, although we got a bit of a descent now. But I’m not far away. I think I’m about 23 24k from my destination now. So going pretty well. I’m going pretty well. Definitely need a gravel bike. Who wants to park no gravel bike? [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] From what I can tell from the uh the old sort of train platform and sign at Horm and various things along the way. Like back there, it looked like there was a a post up that looked like one of the old um the old post that they used to hang the mail bags from. So from what from that all I can deduce is that this used to be an old railway line at one point which has probably just been paved over and turned into this beautiful woodland walkway that goes all the way down to to near Eastborne. It’s it’s great. It’s brilliant. It encourages active travel. It encourages exercise. It encourages walking. There’s picnic benches dotted along the route for people to stop and have something to eat and all that kind of stuff. And it keeps you away from the roads brilliantly. This is just fantastic. The country needs more of this stuff. Well, I’ve made it to Eastborne. It’s pretty good going. That last climb over the golf course to then dip down into Eastborne was fantastic. Really nice. Really nice climb. Little sort of you can see the sea at the top and you’re just like, “Oh, I’m nearly there.” That was good. I enjoyed that. So, I’ve managed to make my way to the cadence clubhouse which is over there. So, I’m going to go and get some refreshment and then I’m going to go and find the station and get the train home, [Music] [Applause] East Point. And we’re home. That was a good ride. um train back from Eastborne to East Croin was actually pretty easy as well. So all in all with the trip to Eastborne and then riding back from East Croin station, it was just under 98k which if I’d have left my Garmin running on the train and then started it again at East Cuddon and got to 98k I would have been really annoyed. But I didn’t. I stopped it. I turned it off and then I started again. So, it’s like two different journeys. So, I’m not I wasn’t that bothered about, you know, tipping the whole 100k job. So, the ride stats for going there were the distance was 90.3K, just a shade under moving time just over 4 hours. Elevation gain was 1,03 m. Um, calories burnt 2,15. Well, I’m having a few beers later with some friends, so that’s going to be obliterated straight away. Uh, average speed 22.2. Um, on my own in the wind. I am happy with that. That was a good ride. That was fun. That the discovering the Cuckoo Way was incredible. I never knew that existed, but it’s an incredible thing. I didn’t see a road for miles. It was unbelievable. Um, but yeah, anyway, I hope you like that. I hope you enjoyed the video. If you’re still here, thank you very much. Um, please consider liking the video, subscribing, sharing, all of those things that help YouTube algorithms. Um, and I will see you in the next video. Bye-bye. This is the way cycling should be. Now all I need is a gravel bike. Who’s going to buy me a gravel bike?
1 Comment
Ok that’s a really cool trail. The cafe stop looked great too.