Bognor to Hove, and home

Part 2 of the Selsey to Bognor and beyond ride ...

I had been looking forward to the stretch between Bognor and Brighton for several years.  In my dreams it was all flat, along the sea front, with a following wind.  It isn't quite like that, although I did have a hefty tail wind.

There are bits which are lovely: around Bognor for example.  But there were several long stretches between Pagham and Shoreham where the roads near the sea are part of private housing estates, designed to make it difficult to connect up into a route. And this wasn't apparent from the map until you got to a bit of footpath that was across the shingle, or along grass, up steps and so on.  In one case, a very elaborate and tall kissing gate more like a football turnstile, ok for a slender person to pass through but impossible for a bike.

Along the shingle ...

At times I was flying along, at others it was slow progress.  The ride went like this;  Pagham to Bognor: faffing through private estates.  Bognor: lovely seafront riding for many miles, then impenetrable private estates; I abandoned and went on the main road cyclepath to Climping.

 

Bognor

Climping: sad to see the beach café and car park closed.  The whole area has been earmarked for "managed retreat" from rising sea levels, so one day it will be flooded by the sea.  Littlehampton:  a bit of sea front then round the back streets to Angmering (nice tea stop).  There was a mile or so of stony track and back streets at Ferring,  but then the rest of the day's ride was on tarmac, mostly on the sea front.

The old cafe in the distance,
and old car park, blocked off

Climping beach

Bridge into Littlehampton 

Littlehampton - mouth of the river Arun

Soon after Ferring came Worthing, then Shoreham by Sea which many of us have ridden to.  I did a bonus loop to the end of the seaside before doubling back along the river (Adur) to cross over the bridge.

Worthing

Inland 'sea' on the approach to Shoreham

River Adur at Shoreham 

From Shoreham to Hove is an interesting ride: NCN2 goes across some big locks at Shoreham docks, then continues on the sea side of the docks for probably 2 miles before the docks end!  By then you're only a mile or two from Hove.

Shoreham port

It's difficult to write much about the big towns of Bognor, Worthing, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Hove.  I fairly whizzed through them on the sea front, so didn't see much of the town.  However the sea (or lack of it) looked quite similar in all of them.

I decided to end this year's trip at Hove.  It's been a great success, and I want to leave something to do next year!  It seemed a good place to pause and to return to next year, all being well.  (Writing this on Tuesday morning at home with steady rain outside makes me even more pleased that I ended the trip on a high, with dry kit.)   I returned home by Southern Rail from Hove, marking my progress around the  railway companies of Britain (first LNER, then added Scotrail, then West Coast Mainline, then Great Western, South West Railway and now Southern).

At Hove

There's been a surprising variety of riding this year.  I thought I knew most of the area, but discovered a lot of new places.  Quite a lot of off-road, generally successful.  Many gorgeous villages and towns, great views and excellent cafes and camp sites.  I've met some lovely and interesting people too.  The weather has mostly been great.  I rode for a day with my brother.  And I went to Sidmouth!   The low point of the trip was probably the rain in the Isle of Purbeck.  My legs had had enough hills at that point, but it was still impressive scenery even in the mist and rain.

Thank you for reading some, or all, of my blog ramblings.  I've enjoyed the comments, although many of them are anonymous so I'm left guessing who said what.  But they do encourage me to keep going, and to try to write something interesting.

I'll post some maps of where I went in a day or two, and a few details about mileages and so on.  The first few days were dreadful for distance ridden, but "good" for hills climbed!

Until next time!