The Bikepacker: Bikepacking - Fox Wood in the South Downs National Park

Introduction

It's 2021. It's another year of Covid and Britain is still operating within a framework of some restrictions. But the vaccination programme is well advanced and summer, or the British version of that season is upon us. So it's time to load up the touring bike and get out there.

This weekend (July 2nd - 4th) I did something I've not often done this year. I left the house. A combination of lockdown restrictions, personal circumstances and personal choices had meant that I had even been doing the greater majority of my cycling indoors this year, using the turbo trainer I'm now very glad I own. But whilst the turbo trainer has kept me reasonably fit, it's no substitute for riding in the countryside. So I did some online research and managed to find a campsite that wasn't fully booked (Brits are mostly taking their holidays in Britain this year), booked a couple of nights and on Friday 2nd July, set off on my trusty touring bike, heading south for the South Downs National Park and Fox Wood, which is about 3 miles from the coast.

Friday 2nd July 2021

I set off at 7:30, aiming to be in the town of Arundel which is about 4 miles from my final destination by 12pm so I could have lunch and buy some provisions before arriving at Fox Wood by 1pm.

Within 10 minutes I hit my first problem! The first hill is only about a quarter of a mile from my house. It's short but fairly steep and nicknamed by a friend "heart attack hill". I went to drop into the low gears, shifting to the smaller of the front chain rings and..... <click>.... nothing. My bike refused to change down into the lower set of gears. So I had to push hard up the hill in the lowest of the higher set. Great start!

I pulled over at the top onto the grass and quickly deduced it was nothing serious. The limiting screws on the front derailleur needed adjusting, no more than that. Strange though because I'd had the bike mounted on my maintenance stand last week, washed, lubed and checked everything including gear changes and it was fine! Gremlins in my garage? Probably.

The easiest to access tool I had with me was my new Swiss Army Knife. A few tweaks of the appropriate screw and some testing and I was back in action, with fully functioning gears.

It was very damp and misty at this hour and I wondered what the weather was going to be like. It's summer but this is Britain so there's no telling what you'll experience!

A misty start to the day

My route south was designed to avoid the busy A27 as much as possible and so was not the most direct. Instead I stuck to country lanes, passing through small villages every now and again.

A picturesque church on the imaginatively named Church Lane in Newdigate

It's important to drink plenty and to eat all the right things on a long ride with a heavy bike and load. Taking this seriously, as I always do, I tried a new in-ride food with great success it has to be said!

Reese Peanut Butter Cups - All the pro cyclists will be eating them now

To aid navigation, I use the excellent offline mapping and navigation smartphone app, Organic Maps. You never need to worry about having no signal. As long as you've downloaded the required maps for wherever you're intending to go in advance, it works completely offline. I'm a bit obsessed with saving the battery on my phone though.... it's an essential tool after all. So, in the app, I select "Allow Screen to Sleep" in the battery settings so that the screen is only on for short periods, no more than 30 seconds the way I have my phone configured. See my post on the topic of Navigation for more details. But even that's not enough. The day before, I summarise my planned route in a set of succinct, hand-written instructions and I consult this information periodically as I ride, only looking at the app if I need to check I'm still on route or to clarify an ambiguous situation. It's low tech but it works and I arrived at my destination 6 hours later with a battery at 90%.

Low-tech but effective navigation

One of the best things about any of the bikepacking trips I've done so far is just enjoying the scenery. It's not like riding my road bike where I'm concerned with average speed and personal records and all the rest of the Strava data points! You can't go fast because the bike's just too heavy, so you relax into it, drift along at whatever speed feels comfortable and.... enjoy. And the countryside on this ride south was at times delightful.

An English country lane

Just entered the South Downs National Park - Hills ahead!

The River Arun near Amberley

Selfie!

The town of Arundel is only about four miles from Fox Wood. It's noted for it's castle. Yes, it has a castle!

Arundel Castle

The main attraction for me though was the Co-op grocery store! I bought lunch (a sandwich, some chocolate and a drink) and some provisions for the remainder of the day and tomorrow's breakfast and sat by the bank of the Arun for a rest and to eat.

Rested and refuelled, I continued on my journey. The last part of the ride unfortunately involved the A27, which simply could not be avoided. It's a dual-carriageway with a maximum speed of 70mph and quite a lot of traffic. Shudder. Luckily the first mile had a cycle path that was physically separated from the road and most of the remainder had a hard shoulder I could use. Still, not exactly pleasant it has to be said. But.... I made it to Fox Wood Camping in one piece.

The camp site is basically an area of private, deciduous woodland, with a toilet block and not much else (which is good). It was very well organised, with Covid safety measures well implemented. I was met by a very nice lady who explained the Covid rules to me and then explained that they'd taken note of my request for a "quiet spot" when I booked and had reserved a pitch for me in the remotest corner of the site. Excellent.

So, I headed over to the far corner of the site and set up camp.

The excellent MSR tent being put up

Tent ready!

Clothes airing on improvised washing line

Home for the next two nights

And that was day 1. I settled in, relaxing to the sound of birds singing in the trees (and unfortunately the background hum of the A27), read my book, listened to music and ate my body weight in biscuits. Those calories I burned weren't going to replace themselves by magic, were they?

And talking of calories, for dinner I had raspberry jam and red salmon sandwiches. When I messaged my wife and told her she said "That sounds revolting"! But it wasn't. It was delicious and if you Google you'll find lots of recipes that involve salmon and raspberry. Give it a try!

In the evening, I watched The Godfather on my Chromebook and in a stroke of genius, made the viewing experience much more comfortable, lying prone in my tent by suspending the Chromebook from a handy loop. Brilliant!

Just like business class travel!

So that was Friday.

Strava stats for Friday 2nd July

Saturday 3rd July 2021

Saturday was always intended to be a day of rest and recovery. Lots of lying down. Lots of eating. Lots of relaxing. But I did leave the tent, honestly! I had a wander in the woods looking for the birds I could hear. Not easy as the trees were tall and most of the birds seemed to be hanging out high up above the ground. But I saw lots of little wrens, quite a few blackbirds and woodpigeons.

Relaxing outside the tent

And I also got on my bike and cycled a couple of miles to the village of Angmering for fish and chips for lunch and to buy provisions for the evening and tomorrow's breakfast.

Yum

Most of the afternoon was spent barely moving, relaxing and occasionally having a sneaky nap in my tent! Lovely :-)

A room with a view

But the highlight of the day, much as the fish and chips were good was watching England beat Ukraine 4 goals to nil in the Euro 2020 football (soccer for my American friends) championship! With my phone suspended from the ceiling of my tent, earphones plugged in, a good enough 4G signal and the BBC iPlayer app, I was able to watch the whole game in comfort! I only hope my cheering didn't bother the one neighbouring tent, about 30 metres away!

And that was Saturday. Here are the cycling stats:

Sunday 4th July

On Sunday I was up with the lark. Well, maybe not the lark (although it might have been) but certainly with the wrens and blackbirds. I woke at 4:30 to quite a dawn chorus of bird song. I felt rested and decided to get cracking, packed everything away and made an early start on my journey home. I had a breakfast of raspberry jam sandwiches and an apple and then set off.

As I left Fox Wood it was drizzling. I had my waterproof jacket on, fully expecting heavier rain and it wasn't cold so no complaints here. My first task was to get to onto the south side of the A27 so I could head west back to Arundel and nicer roads. This unfortunately required a roundabout route, south into the village of Angmering and then looping back north up to the A27. I joined the A27 and was relieved to find that this section had a cycle lane. There were already lots of lorries and cars and it was now absolutely pouring down.

And then it happened. Only three miles into my ride, I was hit by a rear wheel puncture. By the A27. In the pouring rain. Curses. Punctures happen but the circumstances and the fact it was a rear wheel puncture made this particularly tiresome. But there's nothing to be done but deal with the problem. I tried pumping up the tyre but this was no slow puncture. So that meant taking the Ortlieb Rackpack off the back of my bike, removing the rear wheel and inner tube and setting to work. I looked to the cause of the puncture but couldn't see anything obvious. I then noticed when looked like a small bump of something stuck to the inside of the tyre. I scratched at it with my nail, expecting it to be a patch of grease or dirt that would come off. But no. I looked at that point on the outside of the tyre. Nothing. I squeezed the tyre in and there it was! A small fragment of glass had buried itself in the tyre and not quite gone all the way through but had created enough of an abrasive point on the inside to puncture the inner tube. It's very lucky I persevered because if I hadn't found it, that piece of glass would have punctured my replacement inner tube. And I only had one with me that day!

Luckily the tool kit I carry includes a pair of pliers and this allowed me to extract the piece of glass. I replaced the inner tube, got the wheel back on (with difficulty!), pumped up the tyre (about two hundred strokes needed!) and was on my way again, hoping and praying I wouldn't get another puncture (mental note to take two spare tubes next trip).

The weather improved as I hit the highest point of the South Downs but the sky was still dark and threatening in the distance.

High on the South Downs with a lot more potential rain in the clouds!

I took a different route home, one I've cycled on my road bike many, many times. It includes the Surrey Hills and in particular, Leith Hill (the highest point in Surrey) and Box Hill, famous amongst local cyclists and made more famous by being part of the 2021 Olympics road race route. And there's lots of lovely countryside on the route too.