Flying along an easy section near Ditchling Beacon on the South Downs way
The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath in Southern England and is one of Britain’s National Trails. It runs for around 100 miles from Winchester in Hampshire to Eastbourne in Sussex. The South Downs Way cuts through the stunning South Downs National Park. Giving you spectacular views of countryside and coast it also passes magnificent castles and through quaint English villages. Furthermore the majority of the path is a bridleway and so can be used by mountain bikers!
South Downs Way is also very well maintained – the paths are in general very good condition. However there were some very difficult areas to navigate. Most notably at the very start (or very end – depending on direction…But the Winchester end anyhow), we found there to be a few un-cycle able areas due to deep mud. Thankfully there were no many of these areas, but unfortunately for us – they were right at the beginning. So I was caked in mud throughout the whole trip….socks, shorts an’ all!
A wet start to our trip mountain biking the South Downs Way
Despite getting wet and muddy in the first morning of the trip, we were lucky to have had sunshine over the next day and a half. And although the trail takes you up and down some steep inclines and over some pretty rocky terrain, but it was all passable, and enjoyable on our fairly basic bikes.
Fantastic views over the countryside on South Downs way. Looking down towards the little town of Amberley and Ambereley Castle
The trail is really quite varied. The majority takes you up and over well-worn, chalky paths with fantastic views of the countryside all around. But there are also sections that take you through woods, farms, and cross roads. There are also many areas where you travel through parks – such as the Queen Elizabeth Country Park as well as joining up with other trails and bridleways.
For the most part, the South Downs Way is well signposted – but you can still go off course!
For the most part the route is very well signposted, this doesn’t mean it is always easy to follow though! On our trip we lost our way several times and had to find our way back. There is no doubt several reasons for this and in our case probably most of our navigational errors were due to us being generally unobservant. However, I cannot be the only person that gets excited on a bit of downhill and simply breezes past signposts…can I?
With this in mind, having the necessary OS maps will make it easier to find your way back, the Harvey South Downs Way map is very good if you are on the trail (particularly useful for showing where you can refill your water bottles), but completely naff if you have managed to come off the trail by accident.
Having run out of water, we were happy to come across a tap!
One particular tip is to ensure you have everything with you that you will need as there is very little opportunity to stop en-route. Even if civilisation is never far away, coming down off the top of the ridge to go to a shop – only to have to climb your way back up is quite a long detour!
Enjoying a bit of downhill through a field.
My friend and I completed the route in a weekend, but if I am honest that was a bit much. The route is not technically difficult for mountain bikers, and you don’t exactly need to be super-fit to do it, not by any means. However, I would have preferred to have taken a bit more time to enjoy it and so would recommend cycling over 3 days.