Guildford to Eastbourne

Today, I did a cycle ride to Eastbourne. I considered going Crawley-way to pick up the Worth Way and Cuckoo Trail (both disused railway paths), but this would have made for a very circuitous ride. Instead, I drew a straight line on the map from Guildford to Eastbourne and meandered around that to stay on quiet roads and lanes where possible. My resulting track is here.

I set off early at 7.15am to make the most of the day. Yesterday it rained all day, but today the early morning sun was just breaking through, and it stayed fine all day: perfect, dry, sunny, not too hot and with an excellent tailwind. My route took me up the A246 to East Horsley (mercifully quiet at this early hour on a Saturday in late July), then over the North Downs via a ferocious uphill on Crocknorth Road, followed by an exhilarating downhill on Whitedown Lane. I then climbed over the Surrey Hills via Abinger Common: there were lots of cyclists out and about. I followed the B2126 (the excellent tarmac surface was a guilty pleasure) to cross the A24, only to find my intended route through the 'Horsham-Crawley gap' down Rusper Lane was closed for resurfacing, an all too frequent occurrence at this time of year. Nevertheless I decided to risk it, and was relieved to find that it was passable by bike. I then made good progress via Handcross, Balcombe and Ardingly before taking a short break in the buffet at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Line, where I was lucky enough to see two steam trains arrive and one depart (the second was delayed by "signalling problems between Horsted Keynes and Sheffield Park" - just like on the 'real' railway).

And so on across the Low Weald, finally joining up with the NCN2 at Bewick. I then followed the NCN2 down to the sea at the east end of Eastbourne sea front. This followed a disused railway for a short while, before transmogrifying into a rather tedious (but traffic-free) cycle path beside busy roads and retails parks.

I followed a short stretch of cycle path westwards along the sea front, before being turfed out onto the road: come on Eastbourne, get with it and open the whole promenade to cycling. I navigated the pedestrian precincts and one-way streets to Eastbourne station, for the return train journey to Guildford via Gatwick Airport. I cycled 73 miles in 7 hours, making a (for me) very good average of around 10mph, although this was greatly assisted by the strong tailwind. And I didn't get off and push once, honest.