A few of us are putting together a route along the south coast. Starting from Dover & finishing in or around Penzance/lands end. Anyone done a 5 day route around there? Would like to do a fair bit off road so some local knowledge would be cool. We are looking at doing 60/70 miles a day & camping. Sometime in June…

I’d be very interested to see what you end up with.

The easy bit is obviously the SDW from Eastbourne to Winchester – well signed, almost all off-road and very rideable.

Warning as you get further west. Whilst the Wessex Ridgeway looks enticing on the OS, bitter experience suggests that it has probably seen few cycles. The signage is very poor and some sections have been ploughed over – so make sure you get some local input

It does sound like an interesting project and you’d think with the New Forest, Purbeck, south side of Salisbury plain, Wessex that it must be possible to put together an interesting route.

Hope you do post the final route.

I’ve been looking at this:

http://www.mbruk.co.uk/mbruk_WessexWay_details.htm

which links to the SDW – though it heads more north west than may be useful to you.

You’d have to use the SDW, it would be a lot more trouble than its worth to try to link anything south of there.

I’ll certainly post the final route, some good input there. thankyou.

Looks like a goer!

As said above – get to Eastborne – then SDW to Winchester.

From Winchester Head south east past Hursley to Romsey and then onto the New Forest. Basically you are aiming for Ringwood.

At Ringwood Jump onto the Castleman Trailway and follow it through to Poole. Then scoot down to Sandbanks, over the chain Ferry into the Purbecks.

In the Purbecks go onto the main ridge towards Corfe, go through there and up onto the next set of hills, through the ranges and past Lulworth Camp, out towards Rinstead Bay, then North west to White horse Hill and go past Weymouth.

The Onto White Horse Hill, Past the Hardy Monument, Down towards Abbotsbury and then a bit of road along the cliff top toward Bridport.

I’m Afraid after here my knowledge runs out but I’m sure someone else can continue…

Some parts of this route may be of use.
Wessex Way

Edit:Oops Andym beat me to it.

If you tacked this on to the Wessex Way you’d have covered some of the best offroad riding in the South of the country:-
Westcountry Way

To be honest, there’s not a great deal of decent offroad riding in Cornwall.

Great map/info about the Southdowns Way – the 2nd page includes distance between points and an ‘elevation’ view parallell to the map way

I’ve got the SDW section on Tracklogs if its of any use along with the water taps marked.
Let me know if you me to email it across to you.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/southdowns/uploads/Final_printed_version.pdf

Think I might have put last time, 2nd glass of wine and all that 🙂

SDW GPX file plus useful route info here:

http://southdownsdouble.net/routeinfo.html

The Onto White Horse Hill, Past the Hardy Monument, Down towards Abbotsbury and then a bit of road along the cliff top toward Bridport

Maiden Castle would be worth a wee detour.

I’m from Dorchester, Dorset

I’ve a good few routes that take me from corfe to abbotsbury. Probably a decent 50-60 mile stretch for you there…

DrP

The Solent trail is pretty good way of getting through Portsmouth/Southampton and well signed. I can show you that.

Might be a better ride to go over to the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth Ride to Yarmouth and get the ferry to Lymington. here is some great off road trails on the island to.