March Madness

Warm up in the Golden Fleece

Witnessing Arsenal's emphatic defeat of Everton and then their dramatic 3-2 win over Bournemouth AND  being invited to a fundraising dinner in the Bank of England AND  cycling in the Hampshire countryside all made for a great long weekend and one that I could wax lyrical about but I will restrict the prose to one of the cycling routes we managed to do. 

Having attended the dinner in London on Thursday night we had left the car at Woking station. The plan was for the Highgate Viking to catch an early train from Waterloo down to Liphook and join myself and the Loafer in readiness to cycle from Liphook to Woking to retrieve the car and drive back to with the bikes on the back!  Much to mine and Richard's amazement, Einar did indeed catch the early train so was with us by 0930 and were ready to pedal by 1030.

Liphook Departure

Liphook to Woking by bike doesn't sound very exciting but we were all pleasantly surprised to find that our route, for the main part kept us away from busy roads and town centres.  Leaving Liphook we headed north on the back roads skirting Bordon and Churt before entering the wonderfully named Alice Holt Forest emerging on the outskirts of Farnham.  The NCR22 which we were on for most of the trip, runs from London to Portsmouth and part of it is known as the Shipwrights Way.  Oak from the Alice Holt Forest was used in the 18th & 19th Century to build ships for the Royal Navy though the trees are now predominantly conifers. I can hear a loud chorus from even the most educated of readers of "Alice ? Who the ***K is Alice?"  Well after much research.... Alice is most likely to be the corrupted form of Aelfidge who was the Bishop of Winchester in AD 984 and "holt" is old English for wood or thicket.

Who the ****  is Alice ?

After a well deserved coffee in Rowledge we saddled up and headed out with the route through Farnham taking us through housing estates.  It was was well signposted and as we headed east towards Guildford we found ourselves on the North Downs Way,  cycling south of the busy A31 along the Hogs Back. 

Not a good look

 Guildford Cathedral was visible to the north as we passed rows of hop growing posts and a long descent brought us right into the pedestrianised city centre. We meandered our way through local parks before picking up NCR 223 and headed along the River Whey up to Jacob's Well. 

 From here it was s short ride to the Long Stay Car Park at Woking Station where our carriage awaited!  Fortunately Richard had remembered to bring the car keys although he did take great delight in telling anyone in earshot, that he could actually start his car with his mobile phone if he so chose to do so ,,,, we were all suitably impressed.... and grateful for the lift back to Liphook!

Thumbs up to Len !

So our route was 54 km long with us climbing 470m and descending 560m and were in the saddle for 3hours 15 minutes and a great day was had by one and all!