South Downs Way; Mon 22 Aug; Winchester to South Harting

Great day, would have been brilliant but for the rain.

Those stats; 29.9 miles at an average of 7.1mph, with 14.1 miles of up and 15.8 down.

5,122 ft of ascent, max 27.6mph.

Stuff that fell off the bike: nothing.

Hills walked up; Salt Hill (almost all of it, see below).

I took the train from Waterloo to Winchester. My breakfast:

Easy to get out of Winchester – I was in country lanes within 10 mins. The climbing started almost immediately, but nothing too onerous.

The SDW is well signposted but this section is rather bitty as it is a mixture of quiet lanes and wide and narrow tracks. But it’s a great route. I was surprised how few people I saw; about 7 cyclists and double that of walkers.

The tracks were very different – open and wide as above and narrow as below:

Then concrete:

Followed by forest:

And then Salt Hill:

Not that steep but very slippery surface so lots of pushing.

It was easier than this track on Skopelos, which Linda and I struggled up last month. V hot and v difficult :

I told Linda it was a short cut. Short cut to a heart attack. I guess she stuck at it as I had the only map.

On the way I passed this natural amphitheatre where General Eisenhower addressed over 100,000 troops just before D-Day in June 1944. The stages and stuff in the pic are from the recent Boomtown Festival attended by 80,000 people a week ago:

I wondered why there were portaloos in loads of fields and tons of rubbish until one of the site staff explained all.

I had lunch on the edge of a field that I then descended on a steep chalk track to find cows everywhere, mainly eating the blackberries:

Anna you would not have enjoyed getting past these bullocks!

Then up Buster Hill, the highest point on the South Downs. Down the grassy slopes:

For years I’ve seen this slope from the A3 and meant to walk it.

On through a country park, in thick forest .

Great track.

What was isolated light drizzle became a steady downpour. Waterproof on and off the Downs to South Harting and the White Hart. This is a lovely old pub and now I’m off to try the beer and food.

A great day. Hopefully better weather tomorrow.