The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2024 - Hindhead to Banstead

Day #

State of Legs

:-)

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	39 miles	km	2388 feet	metres	1
Trip Totals	1337.7 miles	km	49843 feet	metres	1

Today's Route

The Complete Bikepacking 2024 Route!

Travelogue

And today is and was the last day of this trip! And what a wonderful trip it has been. But we'll save that for the post-trip retrospective that will doubtless be posted at some point.

We loaded up the bikes outside the (terrible and somewhat filthy) hotel and set off, immediately joining a path through woodland and on the edge of National Trust owned land at Hindhead Common and the fabulously named Devil's Punchbowl. The view across the "punchbowl" was excellent.

The general cycling today was much nicer than yesterday. The route we followed was mostly the reverse of the route we'd followed on day 1, but with a few tweaks. Until we were about 6 miles from Dorking, there wasn't too much traffic and we rode a few miles on paved and unpaved paths rather than on roads. At one point we followed a former railway line.

But we did hit one issue. A dreaded Road Closed sign. DISASTER thought M1 (as usual). M2 pointed out we could just follow the diversion sign (as she usually does in these situations). So, fair enough, it was more of a MINOR INCONVENIENCE.

We looked at the map and guessed we'd be cycling a mile to a mile and a half off route, up a fairly big hill away from the route but then turning left and following the road back to our route further along, having bypassed whatever work had warranted closing the road. But after climbing the hill and arriving at the left turn, there was no diversion sign to indicate we should go that way at all. We looked at the map again and the only other possibility was to continue some distance to join a major road and by the time we returned to the planned route, it looked like this would be a detour of at least five miles. We did not fancy adding an extra five miles to the day's cycling, so we headed down the left turn anyway, determined to see if we could get through the road blockage on our bikes, risking more wasted effort but perhaps to be rewarded with a shorter detour if things worked out.

On rejoining our route, we quickly hit another Road Closed sign but this time we could see the roadworks that were the cause of the closure. It was a tiny little hole that had been dug in the road and fenced off. Only half the road was affected. We cycled past without issue and continued on our way. Why the whole road had been closed we have no idea but are glad to have ignored the signs and avoided incurring a five mile penalty!

Soon enough we were on roads we know well. We cycled along a fast and narrow road to Dorking. From there we continued on a combination of road and cycle path. We discussed options for which way to go to take us all the way home and decided we hadn't done enough climbing on this trip and that Box Hill was therefore a must. After all that training, repeatedly cycling up and down Box Hill to build strength and stamina it seemed a fitting end to the trip.

So, up Box Hill we went. Slowly but without any difficulty, even on these heavy bikes (can I mention just one last time that our bikes are really heavy?). This was no Basque Mountains.

And finally..... we're home! All's well on the home front. We were greeted by our son who has been house-sitting. And M1 was amazed at how much the garden has grown. It's in the process of being returned to nature and has not been mowed for over a year now. Nature really went to work whilst we were away. Brilliant.

The day's photos.....