|
Regular visitors to the site will be pleased to know that the route guide for the Eastbourne to Brighton ride is finally finished! Enjoy!
The distance of the Eastbourne to Brighton ride is around 40 miles; although it's only 25 by road, riding over the
Downs takes you round the headland of Beachy Head / the Seven Sisters, adding quite a lot on to the journey. Just after Friston Forest, we ride for about three miles in the road too, up to Alfriston, and you're heading north here, rather than the straight line the route you'd use by car takes you in.
This ride starts with a train journey to Eastbourne from
Brighton– this costs just under £8 from Brighton at the time of writing. We normally aim to get to the foot of Beachy Head
in Eastbourne by about 9:00, to leave plenty of time; therefore we get to the station quite early, because it's not guaranteed you'll get bikes on a train these days.
Once in Eastbourne, we normally blag a route through town, zigzagging through the streets until we get on to the promenade, and then following the promenade West up to the foot of Beachy Head, where this ride starts from. The simplest way to get there is to ride due south to the prom from the station, and follow it westwards.
The prom in Eastbourne heads steadily uphill, and you can see the grassy hill which leads up to Beachy Head almost straight away. There’s a little shop selling ice creams etc right at the bottom of the hill; not sure if this is open throughout the year though.
The initial uphill from Eastbourne is a bit of a beast.. We end up walking some of it. From here, you follow the path up to the top of Beachy Head (I'll be sure to get a picture of the lighthouse when I do the ride, but I’m not about to start recommending everyone else go and take photos of it!).
Follow the path up the hill, heading initially for the road. From the top, the route is pretty obvious; you follow a line that goes between the road to your right and the cliff edge to your left. Go past the
car parks containing the ice cream vans (there's a toilet block here too if needed!), and (what I think is) the visitor centre.
After a few ups and downs, you get to a hill, which has a building (not sure what it's there for) on top and a coach drop-off point at the bottom. We tend to ride round this on the road - it saves a lot of time, and the downhill on the other side of the up isn't that rewarding anyway.
This road can’t be longer than about a mile, and goes right round the foot of the hill, taking you to the car park at Birling Gap, where there’s access to the beach, and a pub too. (Not that there's time for such activities on a ride such as this!). This pink line on this map shows the South Downs Way, and the point where is splits in two, described below.
From Birling Gap, you go up what can only really be described as a driveway (I think there are “Bridleway” signposts though). This leads up to a gate, shortly after which the path splits in to two.
Take the right fork here – it’s signposted anyway, with a footpath in one direction, and the bridleway, for horses and bikes, going in the other. Taking the left route will result in lots of lifting your bike over sty’s, and as that route is a footpath, I think it might be illegal to ride anyway.
Head diagonally right over the field to the next gate, and continue in the direction of some buildings. The path curves to the left away from the buildings; at this point, you are basically going around a valley, and you can see the sea to your left.
After the next gate (if I remember rightly, there is a shack to the left of the gate), continue diagonally right across the next field, to what is basically another long driveway, leading out on to a road.
Diagonally over to the right is a triangular traffic island, and just beyond that the entrance to Friston Forest. Enter the forest and follow the path in as straight a line as possible, keeping parallel to the road which runs down by the side of the forest (the A259) (see this map for clarification.. the A259 is the large pink road). This bit could be done by road, but as we know Friston Forest from riding the waymarked trail around it, we like linking the two rides together. (Besides, the more time spent off-road, the better!)
This top corner of Friston Forest can get overgrown at some times of year; it can be necessary to really through the undergrowth at some points in the year.
The path turns in to a fireroad; follow this all the way down as far as it goes. At this point, you have two options; either turn left, and follow a small path between a stone wall and the hedge, or back up about twenty yards, and follow the turning that was on the right (now your left) that you just missed. This is part of the
Friston Forest MTB Trail. Go down here, and take the first turning to the left, at the crossroad (crosspath?). Ride towards the stone wall, and go over it, then follow the obvious trail through the trees down to the car park at the Seven Sisters Country Park.
OK, don't bombard me with hate mail for this.. but.. we're going on-road for a small while. We have tried going following the river banks, but it takes so much longer. Basically, you're heading to Alfriston at this point. This map shows the Western edge of Friston Forest; the road going alongside it is the road you follow. This map shows about three clicks (as in mouse clicks, not kilometres!) on the map northwards; you take the turning to Alfriston, and cross the river. Follow the handy green dots; I think these indicate the South Downs Way.
Now we're in the quaint village of Alfriston; there is a bike shop there if you're in need of any supplies.
Find the High Street, and the road which goes west from the high street, which is signposted "South Downs Way". This leads up to a cross roads, with a green on the corner. This is a good place for a rest / food / drink stop, as the 4-5 miles are generally in the uphill direction.
Ride up the road, continuing when it turns to a rutted chalky path. Follow this all the way up to the top and round to the right. When it starts to turn left, there is a little path with a sign saying "South Downs Way".. I don't normally take this turning.. I've seen too many bikes hurtling down here; continue up for about ten yards and turn left on the wider section of the path.
Go through the gate, and follow the path roughly North East. Now you need to follow this path alongside the fence for around 3-4 miles, mostly up, with some downs thrown in.
When you get to the two masts next to each other, you're very nearly at the end of this section. Once you get past them, I think there are two gates to go through, and then you start heading down, in to Southease. Follow the path round to the left, and then to the right, where is turns in to another rutted chalky path. It's a good idea to slow down before hitting the path; my front wheel slid about a bit because I was going too fast at this point.
Near the bottom of the chalky path, there is a road which joins from the left, which leads to a bridge over the road. This was still in construction on this ride, but the bridge was complete, so we went over it. Turn left at the bottom, towards Southease Station.
Cross over the tracks at Southease, and follow the road to the left and along, then over the bridge over the River Ouse when you get to it. Follow the road right along to the end.
Go past the quaint little church, and follow the road up the hill till you get to a T-junction. You need to turn right here. This is about a 15 minute stretch of road (obviously depending on your speed!), and takes you along to Lewes. From this point, follow the route guide from this point on the Brighton --> Lewes --> Brighton gallery, using the thumbnails at the bottom of the page to go from step to step.
|