Two or three times a year I take the painstaking trip down to Southampton via train to stay with my best friend Aaron.
I like travelling by train, particularly off-peak on a good weather day - music, book, podcast, a slow pace plod to somewhere. However, the train down to Southampton is not my favourite - dull, disjointed and uncomfortable. It's either my old work journey (Cross-Country, LNER to London) then a trip across to Waterloo and a busy commute train down to Southampton Central, or a trip across country to Coventry, then down via Oxford, where you end up on trains with little facilities, bad visibility and often irritating people.
A mad thought popped in my head. Should I go by bike instead? It's a pretty long-way, 150+ miles as the crows fly, so obviously a longer cycle route. I pulled together a few different routes on Komoot, one starting from Leicester, one starting from Oakham, mostly avoiding any cities (Northampton, Newbury) and taking in better scenery and (hopefully) quieter roads and lanes. It worked. My gravel bike is perfectly set up for touring (steel frame, 42mm commute-style tyres) so I opted for a mixed terrain route, taking in some passable byways, away from civilisation. I opted for that, starting from Oakham. Done.
Stamford > Oakham via train. Glorious weather day. I arrived in Oakham wanting coffee, but decided 20-miles was a sufficient reward stop for a caffeine injection and that Market Harborough was about right for it. The first 5-miles out of Oakham were a brutal reminder of the difference between a normal bike and a bike packed full of gear. I got into the easy gears and reminded myself this is a long-couple of days, easing up some pretty gnarly hills I hadn't ridden before.
Great Bowden was the first stop for coffee, just shy of Market Harborough, changing on a cafe called the Bowden Stores. Very posh.
After the initial hills in the first 16-18 miles, the route flattened out, and I moved onto the NCR6, a disused steam railway line that's now a 14-mile track connecting Market Harborough and Northampton.
I'd been particularly looking forward to cycling this and it didn't disappoint, like a far better maintained Cinder Track route I'd cycled earlier in the year up near Scarborough. The tunnels (darker because of the thick layer of steam oil from years of the trains running through) were so pitch-black even my double-lumen light struggled to give me great visibility, but added to the fun and adventure. Glorious.
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14-miles, over in a flash. Quick pitstop in Northampton for coffee and a cracking toastie. Over half-way. From Northampton the journey slowed and got bitty. I think route-wise I ended up on more bridleways than perhaps I needed (some private, with a ticking off from a couple of farmers), but there was a lot of beautiful scenery, and the weather had perked up and it was pleasant and warm.
Around 5pm I finally arrived at my overnight stop in Upper Heyford. I'd signed up to use Welcome To My Garden, where other cyclists (and friends of) offer pitches in their gardens to travellers for free. A lovely bloke called Roger offered me a pitch for the night, including free electricity, and a couple of cups of coffee.
Ideally, I would've preferred to put another 10-miles on the clock to have less to cycle on Day Two, but those are the breaks, and I settled into a rather nice and spacious garden, accompanied by a puppy dog called Sky and some (noisy) chickens. I found a local supermarket, and a small pub - after a couple of pints of Meantime and some grub, I hit the hay to get ready for a long-day two.
Day Two, 90ish miles to Southampton. I set off slightly later than I wanted to, a combination of waking up late and nattering away to Roger. Fortunately the wind had died down from the day before, but my legs were stiff and I knew this would be a slower day. My aim was to get past Newbury on the map by midday.
The route started with a flat 13-miles to Oxford - perfect place for a coffee stop. Again, the morning weather was glorious. After a swift cortado I cycled through Oxford and onto the Thames Path - as an ex-Londoner, I forget how much I miss the bustle of city-life and how much there is going on. I meandered through, taking it in, enjoying the morning rowers out and the boat-dwellers waking up.
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Once out of Oxford, I made my way to Abingdon. I know a couple of people from this area of the world, so nice to see where they live/grew up. I cycled through Drayton > Steveton towards East Hendred, the start point of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape. I've never cycled through the NWDNL before (it spans all the way east to Letchworth on a map) but I was intrigued and it's always good to see another AONB in the UK. My passage through the NWDNL was about 30-miles, coming out at the other side to Andover.
It was hilly! Which was to be expected. As experiences go, it was OK - I won't be rushing back. What surprised me was the lack of anything there - if you cycle in other AONB you find villages with coffee shops, restaurants, ice cream parlours. Here there is nothing. A barren (untouched) pretty-ish wasteland. In some ways, it's probably a good thing, something that tourism hasn't touched. But it's inconvenient.
After 10/15-miles I ran out of water, with the biggest climb of the two-days yet to come. The nearest shop was out of the way, and not in the right direction. Very fortunately I found a very receptive kind man who let me in his kitchen to fill up my bottles - he couldn't believe I'd cycled from Lincolnshire!
I made my way through the NWDNL, getting tired, with the weather a bit miserable and my energy stores feeling low, despite the 30-odd miles or so left. I finally made it out of the NWDNL and arrived into Andover - wow. I got out quick. I crammed in all my gels, bars, did a bidon of water, and pressed on. Romsey was my marker - once I was in Romsey, I was on the home-stretch. Somewhere around here I lost my favourite jacket, which must've slipped out of a gap on the back of my bike - not pleased.!
One of the interesting things about the route, even when I was tired or getting a bit grumpy, was that it never failed to surprise me. Even in the last stretch, I hit an interesting trail that took me off the main road/traffic, which perked me up, or a really good cycling lane, which made things just that bit easier. Even when I got to Southampton I hit a mile trail through Southampton Common - completely empty and like a MTB track - fun!
I finally made it to Southampton (great cycling infrastructure!), crawled over the Itchen Bridge to Woolston, my final destination, 93.2 miles later, and 168.8 miles over the two-days. Beer o'clock.
The key learnings:Cut any residual weight down. Don't carry a laptop on my back ever again. Make sure there are shops for water and mark those on my map. Always carry a waterproof jacket even when its 20c+. Check your inflatable mat for leaks (yep) and don't do 90 miles in a day unless absolutely necessary.
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