King Alfred’s Way (2020)

Multi-day adventures are about the journey as much as the destination, none more so than the King Alfred’s Way as the journey takes you full circle back to the starting point. The trail was launched in 2020 and covers c.360km around the historical Kingdom of Wessex, officially starting and finishing in Winchester, the burial place of King Alfred the Great. And as with all journeys it was one’s companions and the mishaps we had to deal with along the way that make it memorable.

I was lucky to be sharing this adventure with Martin with whom I’d recently ridden the Ridgeway and the South Downs Way and Alex, veteran partner of several MTB stage races, such as the Swiss Epic. But as with all groups an interesting dynamic often develops with people slipping into certain roles. If I go on holiday with my wife, she is usually the organised one that has the plan and is often pushing me to stop faffing and mobilise. So she was amused when I came back from this trip saying that I had been the person getting stressed about not moving quickly enough. I wasn’t entirely happy to fall into the role of guide but that’s how it worked out. I guess I was just the one who was most worried about being benighted… and given that happened on the two days where we were pressed for time my concerns weren’t completely groundless.

A video introduction to the trail is here: Cycling UK video. I’ve found it a revelation as to how much variety there is in the countryside that is only an hour or two’s drive from London. The trail traversed chalky hills and uplands (the Ridgeway and South Downs Way sections), gravel paths past meadows and farms (Salisbury Plain) and sandy gorse covered heathland and forest (the section near the Devil’s Punchbowl) plus lots of picturesque villages and places of historical interest.

We rode anti-clockwise. Our camp sites are shown as blue dots.

Martin and I decided to start our ride in Guildford because we could get a direct train there from Wimbledon.  From there, it was 18km to Tilbury where we would join the loop of the King Alfred’s Way and ride anti-clockwise. The plan was for us to ride to and then camp near to Wantage and for Alex to start in Reading early the following morning and catch and join us. Then the three of us would continue and complete the loop over the next two days. The things that we thought might not work were fine in the end; the early train to Reading on Sunday that Alex had to take ran on time and Alex caught us as planned at lunchtime in Avebury.

However, we did have some minor challenges to overcome, one of which was that after a long screeching descent off Salisbury Plain we realised Martin had no rear brake pads: I’ve since added brake pads to my bike-packing kit list, but on this trip we had no spares. As luck would have it we’d finished Day 2 only about 20km from Winchester and he managed to get them replaced the following morning. That aside, the only other mechanical issues were on my bike. My derailleur hanger was bent by a large stick flicking up off the path towards the end of Day 2 and I suffered a large gash in my front tyre on Day 3. The former I replaced (I had a spare thanks to Gearmechhanger) and the latter was was easily fixed by Alex using his Dynaplug kit (I was so impressed by this that I’ve since bought one for myself).

Shorter daylight hours also proved challenging on the last two days. We finished early enough on Day 1 for Martin and I to have dinner in a pub (the Greyhound in Letcombe Regis) and then watch the ITV4 Tour de France highlights on my phone. It was the Planche des Belle Filles time-trial, a stage worth watching before knowing the result if there ever was one. But on Days 2 and 3 we were riding into the dark. We didn’t know where we were going to camp on Day 2 but had seen on the map a couple of villages that looked like they had pubs where we could obtain water. However, the area around the first was a bit too populated for wild camping. As we pushed on into the rapidly fading light and our concern about finding a decent camping spot slowly increased, I was reminded of looking for a bivvy side while mountaineering (albeit in a much less serious situation).

We made a good call pushing on a bit further to Broughton, as we found a pub, the Tally Ho!, where we could get the water we needed for dinner and breakfast. As we were enjoying our beer, crisps and peanuts in the beer garden, suitably socially distanced from the regulars inside, one of them started chatting to us and asked where we were planning on going next. After a moment’s hesitation I figured we may as well be upfront so I answered that we were planning to ride on and find somewhere to camp. He suggested that we camp in the area we had passed through before descending to the village. We had spotted a potential camp site up on the downs which we planned to return to and his words made us feel much happier about not being turfed off by an angry landowner.

When we had reached the Tally Ho!, Alex mentioned that he didn’t have any food for camping out. Unfortunately the pub was not serving food that night and was the only place open in the village. Luckily I had brought some spare noodles so we made our first course a vegan one – including marinated tofu – which we shared with Alex. The next morning he didn’t want to share our breakfast. What’s not to like about instant porridge and powdered cappuccino mix? As mentioned we weren’t that far from Winchester so whilst Martin was looking for a bike shop there, Alex was able to grab some coffee and breakfast (and I was able to have a second breakfast). I’m not sure what Alex was thinking; he’s a vegan where possible, so maybe he’s mentally gone a step further and now believes that he has metamorphosed into a plant and only requires sunlight and water to keep going.

On the final day we had to make it back to Tilbury to complete the loop. We rode the last 30 minutes in the dark and whilst we could have gone further, our torch batteries were fading so it felt like we made it just in time. It was 7.36pm. Once at Tilbury we rode the final few kilometres into Farnham on the road. From there we caught the train back to London. It was a good decision to give ourselves three days to complete the circuit the given reduced daylight at the end of September. Our elapsed time was about ten to eleven hours each day and we were riding for about seven and a half… which suggests that if you’re riding without any sense of urgency you can figure on actually riding for about 75% of the available riding time, less if you have punctures or mechanicals.

Day 1 Photos

In Tilbury about to join the King Alfred’s Way. We were really lucky with the weather of the three days which was dry and mild.

We reached Reading after about 80km of riding. Approaching it along this canal showed a much nicer aspect of the town than I’d seen previously whilst driving through it.

We stopped on this bridge over the Thames to eat some sandwiches before pushing on to Streatley and the start of the Ridgeway.

We’d reserved a table for dinner in the Greyhound in Letcombe Regis, the sister town to Letcombe Basset.

Whilst riding to the pub we’d scoped out a good camp site up towards the Ridgeway.

It was nice to get to the pub with time to relax.

The food was great… much as I like Korean noodles I prefer a rump steak.

Day 2 Photos

Our camp site was ideal. Martin opted not to carry a tent and just take a bivvy bag. Luckily it was a dry night. If it rained he was planning of sticking his head under the flysheet of my tent (which can fit two people at a push but is more of a one person tent).

It was nice to experience the Ridgeway in the opposite direction to which we had previously ridden it.

Martin and I had missed this historic sight when previously riding the Ridgeway.

The barrow was surrounded by ancient beech trees redolent of lost spirits and strange rituals.

The stones in Avebury also felt infused with mysteries from the Neolithic period.

We passed many thatched houses but this one in Avebury was one of the prettiest. After a lunch of crisps, sausage rolls and Scotch egg (for Martin and I) and fruit and bread (for Alex) we set off to the tackle the remaining 80km of the day’s riding. A broken card machine in the village shop meant we ended up staying there for 15-20 minutes longer than planned… without that we probably wouldn’t have ended up riding in the dark later that day.

After Avebury we made good progress. Martin and I had been planning to rinse out our shorts and socks from the previous day but the first running water we found was in the mid-afternoon and from a tap in a church graveyard! Unfortunately the bumpy roads that followed meant that one of my socks detached itself from where it was drying on my saddle bag. So it’s worth tying stuff on securely rather than tucking it under straps.

Day 3 Photos

We slept well on the downs though while cooking up the night before (at around 9.30pm) we were plagued by slugs. Small ones, big brown ones, they were everywhere. You only had to put down something with a smooth surface, like a cup, on the grass and a slug would be on it. I’m not particularly fond of slugs but thankfully I didn’t have to bivvy outside… unlike Martin. Strangely they seemed to avoid him; in the morning there were hardly any slug trails on the groundsheet that he had spread around him.

Breakfast was was a damp affair with the mist not lifting until after we were on our way.

At the King Alfred statue in Winchester. Martin managed to sort his brake blocks out relatively quickly at Hargroves Cycles but we still probably spent about 20 minutes longer in Winchester than we would have without that mishap. The puncture I had not long afterwards ate up another 15 minutes.

This photo is on the old railway just before the climb to Old Winchester Hill. After Winchester we by and large followed the South Downs Way until 8km after Queen Elizabeth Park where we turned north. 

We made good progress heading generally north-east until we reach the Longmoor Army Training which was closed to the public. We managed to figure about a diversion but wasted about another 20 minutes.

By the time we reached the Devil’s Punchbowl some rehydration and refuelling was needed. You can see how tired people our by how much their natural road cyclist’s reluctance to eat sugary snacks fades. At the service station just before the Punchbowl, aside from some water all wanted was sugar; Coca Cola, wine gums and fruit pastilles.

We were the only three people in our carriage on the train home and by 9pm I was back home in Wimbledon. 

The Stats

Remarkably we ended up riding for almost the same amount of time on each day. I’ve noted our start and finish times as they are useful for planning routes and whilst we had some things come up that wasted time that’s probably almost inevitable on a ride like this. Day 1 includes 18km before we started the official trail and Days 1 and 2 about 2km to get from the respective pubs to our camping spots.

Day 1: 129km, 1304m, 7.38. Start in Guildford, 7.52, pub 17.35.

Day 2: 131km, 1414m, 7.39. Wake-up 6.30, start 9.08 (!), pub 19.40.

Day 3: 129mk, 1703m, 7.41. Wake-up 6.00, start 8.39, Farnham 19.50.