Bike Ride: Brighton to Lewes (via Ovingdean, Woodingdean & South Downs Way)

It's another weekend! We went to Lewes (unintentionally) through another route. We wanted to take a circular route from Jenni's place down to the seafront, along the cycle route (2) towards Ovingdean and then onwards on Falmer Road to University of Sussex and then back down Lewes Road to her place.

We left at 3.50pm. It was an okay ride, at least up to Ovingdean when we had to climb up a massive road hill (Ovingdean Road) and connected to Falmer Road. Right here a bloody bee-like creature bit Jennifer but she survived. We continued up north Falmer Hill and reached Woodingdean. It was then a 1 mile climb another massive massive hill. This is the toughest road hill I have ever tackled. We finally arrived at Drove Road where we found the public bridleway (Drove Avenue) towards a hill called Newmarket Hill. The peak of Newmarket Hill is 646 feet above sea level (remember Brighton sea front from where we began is about 15 feet above sea level).

We entered the South Downs Way after a while, where we continued past a nature reserve (Castle Hill). We will check Castle Hill the next time we come down. The view over the chalk grasslands is lovely as is the view of the farms right next to it. We finally reached Kingston, a small village south west of Lewes where we continued up towards Lewes on Kingston Road. Roughly 2 1/2 hour later we arrived at Jennifer's mates house nearby Lewes station.

This was one of the most enjoyable trail I had since getting the new bike. Off-roading is so much fun and I learnt that my bike is better at off-roading than Jenni's Scott (which seemed to be better on-road). If the weather is similar to today's, we may do the Falmer route tomorrow (South Downs through Stanmer Park and Ditchling Beacon).

Total: 15 miles including excursions (roughly 3.3 miles off-road)

Brighton Marina:



Ovingdean:





Woodingdean peak looking south towards Ovingdean:



The view from Drove Road, Woodingdean:









Entering the South Downs way:













Castle Hill nature reserve:















Lewes town is just a few miles away:



Lots of bunnies down this valley:







On the train back from Lewes:



Technorati tags: MTB Cycling Brighton South Downs South Downs Way Lewes Trekking Trails