King Alfred Way, June 2021

We arrive in Winchester at about 7:30am, park the car in Chisel car park and start to load the bikes. A bit of faffing and we are on the road by 8:30am in shorts but retaining the arm warmer as there is a chill in the air.We navigated out of Winchester using the GPX files we had downloaded from the Cycling UK website and within 20 minutes we had left the bright lights behind and were already up to our knees in nettles and mud, weaving our way on byways, bridleways, and minor roads. It was so peaceful, and we could feel the buzz of what was to come.The route took us along single track at the edge of muddy fields, down gravel tracks and through woodlands. At Old Sarum we turned north past the castle onward in the direction of Amesbury, passing close to, and over a very narrow River Avon. By the time we got to Amesbury we were ready for a snack, so a short stop, pop on the rain jacket to keep the cold out, then back on the road.It’s easy to forget how slow progress can be on muddy trails and gravel tracks. It was only 53KM to Amesbury, but it had taken us 4:30 to get there. These were going to be long days. We stopped in town and picked up a couple of sausage rolls and a coffee, which was well timed as we were starting to flag a bit. It had been six hours since breakfast.Read more..
darylcollis.com/2021/06/28/king-alfred-way-june-2021