MTB Bike Ride: Foredown to Devil's Dyke

What a hectic week! I can't tell you what happened, but it has been one crazy week. It is the bank holiday weekend and yesterday I decided to trotted down to Brighton. I will be back in London on Monday for the Notting Hill carnival anyway. Hopefully it won't rain. It has been raining for the past two weeks. Bloody British weather.

So we went down to Portslade yesterday evening. The sun was almost out and we decided to make use of whatever sun there was left. We wanted to do the circular route in the South Downs near Devil's Dyke. To get there we took our normal route on the promenade down the seafront, and through Hove first before making our way uphill towards Mile Oak (you can basically follow the No. 1 bus from Brighton center). Connect at Mill Lane and cycle north until the road becomes Foredown Road.

The road is now an off-road public byway. Be careful as farmers also use their vehicles on this road. We crossed the bridge (over the A27) ahead and turned left uphill. If you want to, you can also continue downhill towards a barn where horses are apparently trained.





We cycled uphill towards Mount Zion (400 feet) and is surrounded by farm animals, mainly cows and horses. The off-road here is messy. Because I haven't received my helmet yet from Evans, I tried not cycle too fast or do anything stupid. It was a quiet day and occasionally we met the odd jogger and walkers.







After the tricky off-road we arrived at the gate that takes up to the South Downs circular walk bridleway. This was the route we were planning to do when we decided to cycle as we were hoping to see some Dew Ponds.



Anyway we continued uphill until we reached Fulking Hill (675 feet). We had a little accident here when I accidentally crashed into Jenni from the back.



The view here from Devil's Dyke is amazing, especially with the usual paragliders. From here we had a clear view of the Sussex's South Downs and The Weald.












By then the sun has started setting and it was pretty late. Without proper lights (our lights are only suitable for urban use) we weren't going anywhere so we decided to head back through the rough cycle lane by Devil's Dyke road all the way down into Seven Dials. It was mainly downhill.



By the time we reached Brighton it was already 8.30pm. We cycled down to the seafront and had dinner at Malay House. By the time we got back at Jenni's we had done between 18 to 19 miles of cycling. Of those 5.5 miles were off-road.

Technorati tags: MTB Cycling Brighton South Downs South Downs Way Devil's Dyke Foredown Trails