A solo 220 mile bike packing trip, nearly all off road, around ancient Wessex.
So, here I am down in Swindon just about to set off on the King Alfred’s Way. It’s a 230 mile round trip gravel bike ride which I’m doing on my mountain bike and I got 5 miles to get to and from the route from here in Swindon. I’ve had a look. So, about to set off uh on 24th of July uh for the King Alfred’s Way. It’s a nice day at 20°. Going to be good cycling. Uh there’s rain coming in about 6:00, so I need to got my tent up before then. So, that’s what we’re aiming to do tonight. Here’s the get up S Frontier bike. Whole load of out gear to uh carry my stuff. Heat. Heat. So, we’re just turning on to the King Alfred Way proper. We got about a mile or so of tarmac and then it turns to uh Landy Tracks. Done 5 miles out from Swindon. And here we go. King Alfred Ray. We’re on to the Ridgeway path proper now and genuine gravel bike riding. Morning. Very pleasant riding today. Although it is raining now very gently. Right, we’re going up on Blowingston Hill. And this is one of those little bits where I’m really glad I’m on a mountain bike, not a gravel bike. And I’m sure there’d be many more. Hi there. Well, some beautiful scenery here. Enjoying this. Uh, but just had my first puncher. Be nice if it was the only puncher, but uh, stopped to mend that. That took a while. Now we’re back on the road again and very much enjoying the Ridgeway. It’s a great cycle ride and uh there are no gates on it. You just ride and ride on your bike and you don’t have to keep stopping for gates. So that’s a real plus. Right, this is the uh temp’s footpath which is not as flat as you might think it would be. Thank you. The only campsite in this area of the King Alfred’s Way uh doesn’t open on Tuesday or Wednesday. So fortunately I did find that out before uh I came and came prepared to try and find a stealth campsite and I did really nice in this little hollow of trees. Um and uh it’s been a first class firstass campsite. Day two we’re underway at just uh just on 7. So that was a pretty good start. Uh some rain during the night, but that doesn’t matter cuz I’m warm and cozy in the sleeping bag. And we’re now heading into Reading, which unfortunately we’re going to hit in the morning rush hour. So, uh here we go. Okay, so we’re now cycling along by the rivers. Oops. Hello. Sorry. Sorry. Well, it’s nearly a crash. You got to cycle through Reading. This is probably as nice a route as you’re going to get. Well, I can’t complain really. I’ve cycled nearly 61 miles and this is the first gate I’ve had to open. So, bravo King Alfred’s Way. That’s a lot of cycling without having to open gates. Right, we’ve just come on to the tow path of the Basin Stoke Canal. And very pleasant little ride it is too. Well, it’s fully raining now and this is not what the weather forecast predicted for this afternoon. It was supposed to be dry. Good morning. Well, that was a bit of a chilly night. Uh the sky went clear and uh it really got quite cold on this off-rid campsite that I’m on. So we got composite toilets, composite composting toilets and uh no electricity whatsoever. This is the off-grid campsite. It’s loot just there. Shower block is in the woods. Really nice shower if you like cold showers. And it’s a sunny day as we leave. Going to be a good day. Day three was from Farnum to Hayden Hill on the South Downs. Well, this beautiful little spot here is French Common. It would be very tempting to skip this bit on the uh King Alfred’s way because it is uh a bit of a loop out of the way. But I’m quite glad I came this way. Friendship and common. It’s a beautiful place. And the Heather’s out making it even lovelier. Hi there. Hi there. Hi. Wow. Yes. Well, that’s Bust the Hill straight up that. No problem. So, take a look at this amazing campsite. Look, there’s the tent with the bike. We’re in a little wood on top of the South Downs. Got a field of oats just there. There’s the sun setting. Beautiful views over the South Downs. And we are going to sleep happy tonight. I’m now standing on Winchester Hill Fort, which is just a beautiful little spot high up on the South Downs. Saturday morning, and it is just a beautiful day to be out. It’s already warm. It’s not yet 10:00 and uh sun’s shining, blue sky, and uh it really feels like an English summer. Cycling is pretty hard cuz there’s a lot of up and down on the south downs. Nice descent really. Oh, sorry. Come through. Oh, busy here. Yeah, that’s right. I do come through. And it’s beautiful open feeling up here on the South Downs. Uh kind of heading just come off of the South Downs way and heading towards Winchester. Happy days. Now crossing the M3 for the second time. There you go. There he is. King Alfred. How many years? Golden barley there. And it is so peaceful here in Hampshire. Well, Sunday morning. Uh just had a mechanical. Had to fix the back on the bike, but that’s all done now. And it’s very quiet here on a Sunday morning. Uh there’s a little children’s playground where I stopped. And it’s quite a fun place to be. Look. [Music] Oh, that was fun. [Music] [Music] Well, I’ve honestly never done so much single track in my life. Well, this is old Sarum. Uh, famous site through English history. Uh, was used by the ancient Britons, the Romans. Uh the Saxons held off a Viking um siege just here. Uh was used by the Normans, the Plantaginets, and then became a rotten burough in the pay of the Pit family until 1832 when the Reform Act got rid of it as a rotten burough. Still famous old place. That’s the river Avon. It sure looks inviting today. Stingy nettles, brambles, thorn bushes. Whoa. And lots of little other plants. Well, here we are on the legendary Ssbury plane. I don’t know if you can see, there’s a red flag flying behind me. So, it means there’s some soldiers doing some operations somewhere. This is a beautifully wide open space on Ssbury plane. Clearly some of its farm. Some of it is just for military maneuvers, but it’s lovely. It’s big sky country. It’s beautiful. Well, it’s the fifth and final night and uh I’m looking for a nice wild camping spot. So, I reckon that uh this one will do well. Yeah, just on the edge of the wood. And there’s the bike down there. And a view over the veil just there from the edge of Ssbury plane. I think that’ll work quite well. I thought we have a nice comfy night here. Uh there’s the wheat ripe, ready to be uh cut. And I was kept well I wasn’t kept awake but I could hear a combine harvest going to beyond when I went to sleep last night. That was about 10:00 and he was still going. We got a lot to do now while the weather’s good. And right ahead is the hill. It’s 150 m of ascent. So nearly 500 ft to get up to the top of this one. That’s Adam and Eve there, the two standing stones. Um, part of the Longstone Avenue, 2,500 BC. These were put up where you can tell we’re in Avery. More stones. Right, I’ve just turned over the map, the paper maps that I carry onto the 17th and final map for the King Alfred Way. Uh, this is the one that will guide me back to Swindon. I’ve got about 17 miles to go still, so I thought I’d do some reflections on the King Alfred’s way. Number one, it’s harder than I imagined. I should have thought about it really. I thought 40 miles a day would be quite an easy target, but you know what? Uh it’s actually hard work doing 40 miles when you’ve got single track. Uh very difficult hills. Uh I couldn’t have done more than that. So I certainly needed six days to get round the King Alfred Way. Um second thing, if you’re camping and carrying all your camping gear, that’s great. quite a bit of weight, but the difficulty is finding somewhere to camp. I’ve been out five nights and only two of them were on campsites and both times I had to go quite considerably off of the uh King Alfred’s way to get to the campsite. three nights uh were wild camping and I love them, particularly the one on top of the South Downs. Uh all all three were good. But the problem with that is that you then run out of electricity. You need somewhere to recharge your batteries when you got cameras and phones and GPS and and uh all the electronics that come with cycling like this. And third reflection, uh it’s just reminded me how beautiful the south of England is as a kind of adopted northerner these days. Uh I I left the south behind 25 years ago. Uh but it is lovely to be back here. Uh it really is uh really has been beautiful countryside to to cycle through. I’ve had the benefit of a lot of uh good weather and sunshine, but uh the a and also it’s harvest time, so the fields are are wonderfully um ripe and ready for harvest. Uh it really really is beautiful. And uh I’ve forgotten how nice how pretty the south of England is. Doesn’t have that hard uh wildness of the north I love so much, but it really is good uh countryside and I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Hi there. And one last thought on the reflections, which is the best bit of King Alfred’s Way. I really enjoyed cycling the Ridgeway. I did some of it at the beginning and some of it at the end, and it really is lovely mountain biking terrain. So, Ridgeway gets number one spot, but there’s lots of nice bits. That’s it. I’ve switched off I’ve switched off the Garmin because I’ve finished the King Alfred’s Way. This is where I joined it on the road just outside Swindon. Just come down that hill and now all I’ve got to do is cycle 5 miles that way into Swindon and my my route is done. Hey, good ride.