To Farnham and Basingstoke by the National Cycle Routes 22, 224, 23

A busy spell, a cold, and bad weather have kept me out of the saddle for the last few weeks. Today, I finally got a chance to get out again. My goal was to follow the National Cycle route over to Farnham and then on to Basingstoke: I've been meaning to check these routes out for some time. Here is a map of my route. The NCN routes are reasonably well signed with Sustrans 'blue plaques', except between Rowledge and Medstead, where the routes are yet to be finalised and made official.

I followed the NCN22 out of Guildford over The Mount (always a good way to check your fitness level and gears), then out through Puttenham and Seale (stopped at the Bothy cafe), and through the suburbs of Farnham to Farnham station. All this is pretty familiar to me, but the next bit of the NCN22 was not. It makes its way through the sprawl of Wrecclesham and Rowledge, to the entrance to the Alice Holt Forest. Here the signing of the NCN22 ends: the route between here and Havant is not yet finalised (possibly never will be). But there are good trails to the Visitor Centre (which was very busy on this school holiday), and from here I pealed off on the Shipwrights Way down to Bentley Station. This will form part of the planned NCN route 224, which when complete will link to Alton. (NCN 22 is the main 'spine' route; NCN224 and NCN 223 (Chertsey to Shoreham) are linking routes.)

From Bentley station, I followed roads to Alton, then picked up NCN224 again which passes pleasantly (but mainly unsigned) through Chawton Park Farm and into the woods, and out again to join the well-signed NCN23 at Medstead to follow quiet country lanes to the outskirts of Basingstoke. From the M3 crossing, the route meanders mainly traffic-free through the suburbs all the way to Basingstoke station, from where I returned home to Guildford by train via Woking. A good ride on a nice day.