It was over a post JOGLE beer or two, that Malcolm suggested the next cycle tour should be a route that incorporated places that had dodgy names. He was up for it and I knew one or two other people who would welcome the chance to join in something so juvenile so I plotted, with the aid of Strumpshaw, Tincleton and Giggleewick's Marvellous Map of Great British Place names, a route that would take in Twatt in the Orkneys, Tickle Cock Bridge in West Yorkshire and Bell End in the West Midlands. Reality set in soon after my initial route was proposed - too far, too much time off work for those who did have jobs and logistically a bit of a nightmare. So those of us who were able and as Barkis in David Copperfield so eloquently put it, "Willin." we settled for 3 days in the South East of England following three of Jack Thurston's routes from his Lost Lanes series of books!
I headed to the Liphook Loafer's house for the late August Bank Holiday and had proposed three circular routes, A tour of Chichester, A tour from Woking and finally a tour from Liphook, all of which are in the aforementioned book.
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| Chichester Loop |
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| Gardener & Loafer |
The Loafer and I drove to Chichester on Friday with our bikes and after the sustenance of a Greggs bacon roll headed south out of Chichester following the towpath of the Chichester Ship Canal before hitting the quiet lanes and fields of rural West Sussex and reaching the picturesque hamlet of Sidelsham Quay on the Manhood Peninsula (dodgy name alert). The Viking had some pressing work so was unable to join us.
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| Sidlesham Quay |
From here we headed west to the seaside resorts of East and West Wittering. We paused on the spit at West Wittering to take in the view, with the eastern edge of the Isle of Wight visible in the distance.
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| West Wittering |
Heading north on the quiet lanes we arrived in West Itchenor where liquid was taken on board at the Ship Inn before embarking on the foot passenger ferry which deposited us on the north side of the estuary just south of Bosham (apparently pronounced Bozzum, (dodgy name alert) before heading back to Chichester via the fantastic and quirky Bareg Cycles bike shop in Fishbourne.
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| The Ship Inn |
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| All aboard |
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| Bozzum |
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| Bareg Cycles |
Saturday had been designated as football watching day so the Loafer & I had driven to Woking to get on a train to Waterloo and headed for The Emirates to watch Arsenal paly out a 2 - 2 draw with their London rivals Fulham. By Saturday night back in Liphook, The Highgate Viking had joined us so we were ready for the Woking Loop on Sunday.
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| The Woking Loop |
We managed to squeeze all 3 bikes on the 0925 on Sunday morning from Liphook to Woking and soon were well on our way on busy roads which given our location was hardly surprising!
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| Pre cycle breakfast |
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| Squeezed on |
We stopped for coffee in Ripley, famed for its bike parts jumble which happens every April and headed for the Surrey hills.
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| Coffee in Ripley |
Spectacular views looking north to London gave glimpses of Canary Wharf, The Shard and The Post Office Tower.
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| The Surrey Hills |
The tricky section in terms of route finding was where the A3 and M25 intersect. The massive engineering project that is going on makes it very difficult to navigate across to Wisley and its gardens. After lot off of off road and undulating tracks, we made it to the safety of the tow path of the River Wey where we spotted John Terry (footballer) walking his dog! The return to Woking to collect the car took us passed HMP Send. Back in Liphook, we celebrated with a beer or two and a BBQ!
The third of our jaunts was a loop from Liphook, billed in Jack Thurston's book as Quintessence of England.
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A Quintessence of England
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| Monday departure |
For rude names, this tour took the prize! The riding through the lanes was epic, Fernhurst, Lodsworth and onto Heyshott were mere points on the map and our brief visit to Cowdray Park for a quick chucka ensured our arrival in Cocking. It took us ages to track down the only road sign with the name of the village on and getting the photo meant taking our lives in our hands as the traffic was taking no prisoners.
We dutifully dispatched the above photo off to various friends and the inevitable photo shop replica came back from the Mayor of Sant Joan, obviously too much time on his hands!
Shortly after we were gifted another gem, Didling and from then on it was a breeze back to the Rising Sun in Milland before our arrival back in Liphook.
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| Didling |
So all in all, The Rude Tour is underway with 141km completed with 1000m of ascent,,,, more to come!
