Hail Caesar! Caesar's Camp and Long Valley Military Training Areas

In South-East England, the Army has a number of Military Training Areas (MTAs for short). Although public access is limited, these areas have been preserved from development, and, when they are open, offer great potential for off road cycling through acres of very pleasant heathland scenery, much of it designated as nature reserves, SSSI etc. During Lock-Down, I cycled around several of these training areas:

Ash (live firing, limited open hours)
Pirbright (no access at any time - I cycled around - and outside - the perimeter)
Chobham Common (usually open)
Hankley Common (usually open)
Longmoor (south of the A3 usually open; north of the A3 live firing, use perimeter track)
Salisbury Plain (public rights of way usually open)

MOD publish times when they are open to the public - needless to say, one must adhere to these: entering when training is going on could have serious - not to say fatal -consequences. If red flags are flying, and/or gates are locked, it's for a reason!

Today, I added another to my list: Long Valley MTA first (north of the Bourley Road), then Caesar's Camp (South of the Bourley Road), just West of Aldershot. here's a map.

I parked at the free car park at the Wellington Statue. This is a large tarmacced car park, and it should always be possible to park, whereas the few other car parks around the MTAs are quite small and may get full on busy weekends (eg Bourley Road car park, shown with alternative route in red on the Google map). I started around 9am, finished around 12:30 pm, around 12 miles in total.

My circuit went anticlockwise. Both MTAs have a perimeter fence, and can only be entered at a few places, via pedestrian/cycle side-gates adjacent to the main barriers (if they are padlocked, don't enter). I believe the Caesar's Camp area is always open to the public. However, Long Valley is used to train Army drivers in the arts of driving military vehicles in challenging conditions - check the web for times when it is open to the public (generally, it seems, most weekends).

The terrain is mainly heathland, wooded in parts, with Caesar's Camp itself being a high ridge with excellent views overlooking Farnborough airfield and beyond towards Woking, Guildford and (on a clear day) London. Once inside the perimeter there is a whole network of tracks to choose from. Mostly these have a good gravel surface, but some, especially the main 'High Speed Test Track' in the Long Valley MTA, are sandy in parts: I had to get off and walk for short stretches, so do be careful, especially on fast downhills.

The photos hopefully convey the excellent cycling and views on offer here.

This impressive equestrian statue was originally intended to top the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner, but was deemed incongruously large, and a home was found for it here.