Sitting indoors on a cold spring day at The Spire and Spoke in Watlington, the group of ladies on my Breeze ride that day were chatting about cycle routes, and the topic of the West Wittering area came up. Let's do a day trip! I had been twice before, so was familiar with a route following the "Lost Lanes" route, but starting at West Wittering, rather than Chichester Station.
Primarily the van drivers (Rose and Anne) checked calendars and came up with a date of Wednesday July 10th. Gill and Jeanette were not free unfortunately, and sadly Sandra pulled out due to being unwell. But 8 of us were good to go. We couldn't believe our luck when, after all the cold, wet weather, we got a sunny day!
We all met at Cantley, and loaded 4 bikes into my van, 3 into Rose's van and Linda had hers on her bike rack., then each driver had the company of at least one other for the journey. First stop, after an hour, would be the loo at Selbourne. Primarily for me, but everyone took the opportunity. 😉
Thanks to the ladies who also shared there photos.
What a lovely surprise when Rose then produced a tin of home made cookies, lovingly cooked yesterday by Mike. (Thank you Mike, they were much appreciated and delicious).
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| The "Cookie Appreciation Club" enroute at Selbourne |
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WW cows as we leave the car park at 12.00, after a drink at
the cafe. Cloudy, but bits of blue appearing.
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And we're off. Photo supplied by Rose, taken by a passerby, who was quite a character.
Louise, Amanda, Amanda, Amy, Sue, Me Linda, Rose |
Within a mile, we joined Sheepwash Lane, a section of the Saltern Way, which is a good surface going around the edges of fields, and connecting us to Itchenor Road to catch the little ferry across the estuary to Bosham.
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| You just walk down the boardwalk and wait for the ferry to turn up. |
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| Itchenor ferry point |
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We waited a few minutes..... hoping it was running! Otherwise
we are stuffed! I had checked the website. |
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| Yeah!! Phew. |
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| Great name. |
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Very helpful ferryman. BUT, he wanted us to pay before
we reached the other side! Scary!!! What would Chris de Burgh think?! £3.50 each. |
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The crossing is less than 5 mins. He will lower the ramp onto this tiny bit of dry land,
where a single cyclist is waiting to do the opposite journey.
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| Bosham |
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| This purple plant is called Limonium or "Dazzle Rocks" |
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Bosham church ahead. Since the lower road is covered in seaweed
today, we ride the higher road, which gives a great view into some
of the gardens along the seafront. |
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| Loved this one. Called Harbour View. |
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| Agapathus with Perovskia (Russian Sage) |
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| Loads more Agapathus buds still to flower. |
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The garden next door. More golden tones, wiht
grasses and Achillea. |
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The high path. At high tide the lower road is under water here.
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Rose has been to the church before
and offered us a history lesson.
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| Very unusual raised area for seating |
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| Explanation of Bayer Tapestry connection to Bosham, and King Harold. |
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| On the ground. King Canute's daughters tomb. |
Crosses scratched into the stones made from swords by Crusaders back in 11th century.
From Bosham, plenty of quiet lanes before we arrive in Fishbourne, and follow a cyclepath route around the back of Fishbourne Roman Palace, and under the A27. Next we have to cross the railway using a pedestrian/cyclist bridge.
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| Crossing Fishbourne Railway. |
A short section now, on a quiet road into Chichester, then on cyclepaths passing the College, under a main road, and we pop out next to the station. (Where the route normally starts). Moments later, we stop at the Canal Side Cafe for refreshments.
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We mostly had a simple option, since Fish and Chips was the plan for later.
Not the best place for lunch, but fine for a drink and snack,
and a convenient stopping point for loos. |
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| The Canal Wharf. |
The Canal path is a good surface, but we did have a scary point where a large shrub had covered the path.
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| Oops! Blocked path. Need to swim past?! |
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| Now heading to South Mundham. |
Didn't take any village photos today, knowing there would be loads of photos without them! It was shortly after this, that we faced a police car blocking the road, and red tape across a section of road. This was not good. It would have meant quite a detour had she not allowed us through! A tree had pulled a electrical cable low across the road, so no vehicles were allowed, but we were. Phew.
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| The next few miles uses farmtracks, mostly a good surface. |
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| I stopped for this photo, whilst the others continued, and heard a rumble behind me... |
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Just as well I had stopped at this wider section. Not a lot of space for
the huge vehicle to pass, so the other had to stop further along on a bend. |
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I spotted this blue crop in a field, and had the chance to get into this area
to photograph it. A couple of us stopped whilst the rest carried on,
only to realise that the cycle route now crossed this field 😅.
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Amy me and Amanda T stopped for a photo in this field.
Great photo Amanda. |
John and I crossed here last time, but the field was covered in crops, and we had a path about 6" wide along the field boundary. At least this time, the boundary path disappeared under hedges, so the farmer had left a decent section for bikes to cross.
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| Part way across the field section, which is half a mile. |
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| Getting there. Tarmac coming up soon. |
As we joined tarmac once more, a short distance to the pretty Pagham Harbour spot. Great to see the tide in, since I have been twice and only seen mud.
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| Pagham Harbour Wildlife area. |
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| We enjoyed a 10 mins break her, soaking up the sunshine. |
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| The Mill House across the road. |
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| Nice to have your own boat and ducks. |
We passed many plant Nurseries, but they mostly looked a bit unloved. The next few miles were hard going, not because they were difficult, but WINDY!!! We tried a bit of peleton cycling, taking turns to lead, but it didn't quite work, since we ended up with big gaps. We passed a thatched cottage with a Unicorn on top, before soon joining the more residential road through Bracklesham.
A bit of traffic on the road for the last mile from East to West Wittering, so 2 groups until we got to the road back to the Beach. It was about 4.30, by now. Where has the day gone? Our average speed was 9.8mph, but I always knew that would be the case with the mix of road surfaces.
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| We had yet to see the sea properly today. |
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The sand and dunes change every time I come here,
thanks to the wind. |
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| Perfect end to the day. Look at those sparkles. |
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| Our 2 brave ladies Sue and Amanda O, ready to take the plunge.... |
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| A long way to run still to get under the water, since it is shallow. |
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| Not many brave enough! It is July and should be loads of people here. |
The ladies had a lifeguard alert them to the face that they were not between the safety flags. The tide was going out, so has some strong currents pulling it back. Good to know they were spotted.
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| The "paddlers" 😂😎😎 |
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| Jumping the waves. Rose dressed in her robe since she WAS going to go in. |
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| Well done ladies. |
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| And a couple of photos to capture the beach before we leave. |
Right then.... FISH AND CHIPS TIME!
I'ts now 5.15ish, and we walked to the fish place behind the cafe, only to find that it was shut! WOT!!!!
Thats ridiculous. Its dinner time. A quick google check and we settled on a chippy just a couple of miles away. All very nice and freshly cooked. Having had sand blown into us at the beach, including in my eyes, we were all happy to sit indoors to enjoy it as a table.
Following my Sat Nav this morning, we went the usual way via Odiham, and Selbourne. Using "home" on the way back, from the chippy, a completely different route (but the quickest). It was a beautiful evening, and a very pretty drive through the South Downs National Park area via Duncton ( a vineyard there) and to Petworth. We continued to Chiddingford which I recognised, as I passed through there in May going to Arundal Castle. The boring bit is the Hogsback etc back to Camberley.
Thanks everyone for a fun day out. Today, at least 4 of us so far have tried to work out how to share the costs of the day. ha ha. Pathetic! 😂
