Great rides: Bikepacking beginners

Something interesting in the south of England. That was the request of my old friend Troy, visiting from California, when I asked if he wanted to go riding. I’ve done many bike trips over the years but somehow a self-supported, multi-day adventure hasn’t been among them. So we settled on a ride from my sister’s house near Hindhead to the Isle of Wight and back via a more or less circular and mostly traffic-free route. 

I had a vague idea where I wanted to go. I’d done the Shipwrights Way a few years back, a 50-mile route stretching from Alice Holt Forest near Farnham, over the South Downs and on to Portsmouth. That would get us to the ferry where we’d cross to Ryde on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. After a couple of days there, we’d head back from Yarmouth on the western side of the island to Lymington, where we’d explore the New Forest. Then we’d follow the Test Valley up towards Winchester and pick up the South Downs Way to the other side of Petersfield. From there, King Alfred’s Way would take us back across to our starting point

Accommodation reservations 

To keep it comfortable, I figured we’d need to split the route into chunks of about 40 miles a day. That would let us do side trips to explore en route, take proper lunch breaks and still have time to relax. We weren’t looking to break records; it was about having a fun trip. Although Troy was amendable to the idea, and despite both us having done so in the past, we chose not to camp. It would mean carrying extra gear, which would be harder. We’d rather spend money on B&Bs or hotels, and pub and restaurant meals where necessary. 

Aside from working out the route, the hardest part was finding suitable accommodation with secure bike storage. The attraction of doing an established multi-day adventure like King Alfred’s Way is that the B&Bs on such routes are set up to cater to cyclists. We were doing our own thing, so I made a bunch of phone calls checking on bike storage until we found the right combination of location, price and storage facilities. Be warned: what some people consider a safe place to leave bikes overnight isn’t necessarily what you or I would consider safe! 

Route planned, accommodation booked and luggage sorted, Troy and I did a test ride with the bikes fully laden. That confirmed that we’d chosen the right bikes and daily distance. Keeping a nervous eye on the weather forecast, we waited for our mid-September departure day.

Tickets to Ryde 

We met up with a friend of mine, Mike, for part of the first day’s ride down the Shipwrights Way. He lived near the route and rode it regularly, which made navigation easier on day one. We stopped to eat our packed lunch outside the scenic St Hubert’s church in the South Downs National Park – Troy with a tin of sardines and a chunk of bread, me with a pack of biltong and a bag of crisps. That fuelled us to Hayling Island, our first overnight stop. We had enough time to check out the beach and the route to the ferry for the next morning. Then it was back to the B&B. 

We made the Isle of Wight ferry in good time, after catching the small ferry across from Hayling to Portsmouth. On the island we headed towards Cowes on a relatively flat northern route using part of the established Red Squirrel Trail. I’d visited the south and the centre of the island before and knew how steep and long the hills were. The idea was to get to the other side and spend two nights in a self-catering flat so that we could explore the western end of the island at our leisure. 

The weather was cooperating. We had deep blue skies, warm sunshine and amazing sunsets for both of our island days. It was good to have time messing about on the bikes without the luggage, just exploring with no agenda or destination other than to get back to base by the end of the day. 

We cycled up to look at the Needles, then tried to find a bridleway to take us up to the Tennyson Monument where the views across the island are amazing. It was a steep push up, then mostly footpaths, so we headed back down to Freshwater and up the chalky bridleway of the Tennyson Trail, alongside a golf course that seemed to go on forever, up and up until it suddenly went steeply (and sketchily) down again. Glad of the stable mountain bikes, we then returned to Yarmouth for a bit more sightseeing.

Forest fauna 

Day four was a New Forest day. We caught the ferry across to Lymington, where we met another friend, Paul, who joined us for a wiggly off-road ride as far as Lyndhurst. We had lunch there, and stopped to thank Tom at the marvellous Woods Cyclery for the route he’d suggested we take to Winchester the following day. The Komoot app was a big help for a lot of the trip but, as we’d found out that morning when it took us through a bog, it wasn’t a substitute for proper local knowledge. 

The New Forest is chock full of routes both on and off road. Ponies, horses, cows, pigs and donkeys roam around on those routes. It’s wise to bear that in mind when going round a corner on one of the narrow lanes where you’d never expect a pig or donkey to be standing. We passed several of each along the way on day five. The weather had deteriorated, but not as severely as the forecast had predicted. It was misty and damp rather than rainy as had been forecast, much to our relief. It improved through the day as we made our way towards our lunch stop in Winchester

After the bumpy flatness of the north New Forest, we soon hit the bigger hills of Hampshire. We had to get into the rhythm of longer climbs after leaving the Test Valley and hanging a right to Winchester. Days five and six were the hilliest, and by the afternoon of the last day we were definitely ready for the end. We even made a few adjustments to the route on the fly to get us back without any extra climbs or unnecessary miles. 

The South Downs Way between Winchester and Petersfield is lumpy and bumpy, and while we were glad to be going down the grassy slope of the infamous Butser Hill, the climb up to it is long and technically challenging in parts, so we again appreciated being on mountain bikes. It also provided our final animal encounter. At one point our route was completely blocked by a friendly herd of cows, which had to be gently encouraged to let us pass. 

After six dry days, it started raining five minutes after we finished. Would we do it again? Definitely. As long as we could book the same weather!