This morning was stormy, even hailing for a while! Once all had calmed I walked to the bicycle mechanic to collect my bike. The owner and his young Aussie apprentice were not only kind and friendly but excellent mechanics. I have new brakes, and a range.of other little issues fixed that 4500kms of riding with a loaded bike can bring. They also passed on lots of local route knowledge and chatted while they worked.
Based on their suggestion, I headed up into the hills. Fabulous hidden cycle paths climbed through the suburbs, past a couple of golf courses
and then onto the South Downs Way cycle route
and arrived at Devil's Dyke which is the longest, deepest and dryest valley in the UK.. it's been recognised for thousands of years.. legend says that the devil himself dug the deep valley to drown parishioners in sea water.
It was blowing a gale at the top but incredible views to North Downs hills and then the ocean.
I then followed the South Downs way which is a mix of graded path, grassy paddocks with a mowed path, mud, rocky paths, chalky paths that are greasy when wet and some bitumen.
The views are incredible. I was at a crossroads and 3 hikers came along and suggested I choose the bitumen road as the path was long, steep and slippery and very muddy at the bottom.
I enjoyed a smooth descent to the sea. I stopped at Mill Hill.to watch the sunset. I was frozen by the time I got back as the temp had dropped to 7 degrees - my layers not quite enough!
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