Weekend Tours

For an Easter holiday trip we decided to visit the Isle of Wight. Of course, the most straightforward way to get to the Isle of Wight from Woking is by the Portsmouth road, and since the A3 has been rebuilt on almost a totally new alignment over the years, the old road today offers fairly tolerable cycling. But we decided to take a couple of completely different routes, travelling down through Sussex and back through Hampshire.

From Woking we made our way through Guildford to Godalming, where we turned off through the lanes to Hambledon, following a route which was long ago a main road but is now little used. A few fairly fast miles on the A283 through Chiddingfold, soon had us over the border into Sussex and back onto quiet lanes again.

Midhurst provided a good lunch stop, and then we were heading towards the South Downs. I'd picked a couple of alternative routes to South Harting, where they joined up for the climb into the Downs past Uppark. From there more quiet lanes led through the downland to Rowlands Castle, from where it was only a short ride into Havant.

From Havant we were to have ridden onto Hayling Island to catch a small ferry across to Portsmouth, but an overlong lunchtime had left us short of time, so we headed straight for Portsmouth. Big mistake - the approach to Portsmouth is totally geared up for cars and we didn't enjoy it one little bit. Oh, and we got lost, as well. So take my advice and leave yourself time to go via Hayling. Once you're over Langstone bridge you can either continue by back roads down the island, or you can use the Hayling Billy cycle trail on the old railway line. However, the trail is rough in places, although a project is underway to improve it to a high standard.

From the tip of Hayling Island it's only a short hop on the ferry over to Eastney, but in the winter months (September to May) it only runs at hourly intervals at Weekends. From Eastney it's about five miles, most of it along the seafront, to Portsmouth Harbour for the Wightlink passenger ferry to Ryde. We got to Ryde at about 5 in the evening and on the pier the wind was freezing, but fortunately it was only a 6 mile ride to Sandown, our overnight stop.

It was a lot warmer when we woke the next morning, and we set out for a delightful ride around the eastern part of the island, stopping for a while at Godshill, where a friend of Keith's owned a museum. Then we returned to Ryde via Havenstreet, past the base of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

Back on the mainland we caught the ferry to Gosport and after a stretch of urban riding we made our way along the seafront to Lee-on-Solent. From there we headed inland on a route which bypassed Fareham and took us eventually to Wickham. There we joined the A32, which may not be everyone's cup of tea but, as main roads go, I have always found it a very pleasant road to cycle. We turned off at Farringdon onto a ridgetop route, with splendid views over the valley of the River Wey, along lanes through East Worldham and Binstead to Farnham, and so back to Woking.

Updated: 6 January 2003