Downs Loop (King Alfred’s Way – South Downs Way – Downs Link)

This is a varied and interesting bike-packing route taking in about 50km of each of King Alfred’s Way, the South Downs Way and the Downs Link. You can ride it as a loop or, as we did, link it up with a ride out and back to South West London. After a winter of Covid-related lockdowns I really enjoyed being back out on the bike exploring some new trails and getting re-acquainted with some old ones.

When we did this ride (24-25 April 2021), B&B accommodation was available but thanks to current Covid restrictions hotels were still not open. We knew it was going to take a couple of days and had originally planned to stay in an AirBnB until my wife pointed out that under the lockdown rules you could only stay in such accommodation with the person you are cohabiting with or with someone in your bubble. Martin was neither so we decided to camp… with the risk of being given a room with a double bed helping swing the decision. Plus I couldn’t help feeling that a bike-packing trip without camping or bivvying probably doesn’t qualify as bike-packing.

An early start on Kingston Bridge.

Our route took us from Wimbledon along tow-paths following the River Thames, then the River Wey upstream towards and through Guildford. Aside from a short section of the route that involved riding along the pavement beside the A3 (although a main road by name – in reality a three lane motorway) and some busy roads in the centre of Guildford it was a pleasant towpath riding the whole way to Godalming. It had been a dry April so there was just gravel and hard-packed mud under our tyres. However, some bits would be muddy after heavy rain.

About to bid farewell to Victor, who joined us for the first 30km.

When I saw a sign to the Wey and Arun Canal it dawned on me that by following the route of these old canals it was possible to get from London to the sea without going over any hills. And conversely it would be easier to get to London than over the South and North Downs which helped explained why there were so many Second World Wall era pill boxes along the river south of Guildford.

After Godalming, which was about 50km from our start point in Wimbledon, we left the Wey and headed westwards to intersect with the King Alfred’s Way which we joined in the sandy Thursley Common. It was familiar from our trip around King Alfred’s Way last year although this time we were going in the opposite direction. That meant a long rocky climb up to the Devil’s Punchbowl were me met Martin’s sister for a pleasant but cold and windy coffee at the viewpoint.

I’d rate the climb up to the Devil’s Punchbowl one of the tougher ones on the route.

From there we followed trails and quiet roads until we reached the South Downs.

When we’d rode King Alfred’s Way last year this section of trail through the Longmoor training area was closed requiring a time-consuming diversion. It was nice to just roll through it this time.

The South Downs in the distance. We joined the South Downs Way near to South Harting.

Although the trail was familiar (it was the third time I’d been on it in the last year) I’d forgotten quite how relentlessly up and down it was.

Surprisingly we hadn’t passed through any towns or seen any water taps since the Devil’s Punch Bowl, 50km earlier, so it relief to chug some water from the tap at Cocking, 120km into the ride. The farm shop was also open so we knocked back our second Coke of the day and an ice cream. Drink Coca-Cola!

This is the same sign as the one in a field of ripe grain in my South Downs Way post from last year.

I tried strapping my tent to my handlebars for this trip time and it worked well.

Although the weather had been sunny all day, there was a cold easterly wind and having spent a couple of hours of riding into it we decided to try to find a sheltered camping spot off the ridge. We reached Amberley, where the trail crosses the River Arun, at around 5pm (at 135km) and started looking for a suitable campsite. The Arun valley would have been ideal but it was too open and public. We scoped out a couple of promising looking camping spots on the map as the trail climbed back up up onto the hills, but they all had problems. Too close to houses. Too visible to passers by. Only accessible by climbing over a barbed wire fence by a ‘Private Property’ sign.

The familiar feeling of the clock running down while searching for a campsite returned to us. We had no choice but to ride back onto the ridge and into the freezing wind. However, we then got lucky and spotted a promising spot. Sheltered, hidden, and pretty much ideal other than the fact that it was in the middle of dense and spooky ‘Blair Witch Project’ forest. Also covered by the leaves in the clearing were cans which on closer inspection turned out to be empty cans of Premium Cider. This appeared to be a drinking spot for local youths, but given the near winter conditions (it was about 5-6 degrees) we figured that the chance of being disturbed by revellers was pretty much zero.

We’d stopped at about 5.45pm (having started at 7am) and had relaxed few hours putting up the tents and cooking up. Strangely we heard a girl’s (or was it a child’s) voice in the forest after it was dark but luckily inside a tent ghosts don’t seem so scary so I didn’t have any problems going to sleep. It was lights out at around 9.45pm.

We even had some warmth from the setting sun as we were pitching our tents.

Dinner was our now standard bike-packing fare of Korean noodles, canned tuna/mackerel, a few porcini mushrooms and marinated tofu.

I found a good use for the wooden chopsticks I bought to eat our noodles.

Our campsite was in the dark forest on the right of this picture.

Sunset looking back down the South Downs Way.

We were up 5.30am. A relaxed start saw us ready to ride at 8.15am. We heard the girl’s voice again but this time from several different directions, so I am not sure if was some other bike-packers – which is what I had assumed. Strange. As we rode east along the trail we saw a few other bike-packers packing up. As it is about mid-way along the South Downs Way the area must be a popular wild-camping area and I now started to notice lots of paths heading off into any patches of forest by the trail.

Another 15-20km of the South Downs Way led us to the River Adur (a.k.a. The Valley of the Pigs… if you walk/ride the trail you’ll know why).

We picked up the Downs Link here and had a relaxed ride back towards Guildford.

Large sections of the link were along a disused railway line. This was definitely more gravel rather than mountain-biking terrain but I was glad of the MTB for the 50km of the South Downs Way that we rode.

After Cranleigh we crossed the Wey and Arun Canal, which was an important trade route from London to Littlehampton on the South Coast before being eclipsed by the rise of the railways in the 19th century. There is a trust that has been set up to restore the canal where there is more information here.

After Shamley Green we passed some parts of the canal that contained water though they were far from navigable.

We turned east shortly thereafter to follow an alternative version of the Downs Link towards Newlands Corner. This turned out to be much more technical than I expected but it was nice to end with some mountain rather than gravel biking. The climb up to St Martha’s Hill was the last difficult climb on the route. Steep, rocky and sandy. A good test with tired legs. Once on the main ridge we joined the North Downs Way and followed it eastwards to Staple Lane. From there we made back to back to Wimbledon by a route we had used before for regular mountain bike rides.

A final food stop at the Staple Lane cafe van. Is that yet another Coke?

Ride Stats

Day 1: 139km, 1648m of ascent, 10.37 elapsed time, 8.02 riding time.

Day 2: 110km, 963m, 8.09 elapsed time, 6.07 riding time.

We spent about 25% of the time stopped on both days, which seems to be standard for us on these relaxed bike-packing trips.

Route Options

It would be possible to have followed the Downs Link to Guildford to re-join our route south and make a loop. Alternatively, if you wanted to stick to named trails, you could follow the North Downs Way westwards from Guildford until it intersects with King Alfred’s Way south of Farnham. A North Downs Way route that avoids footpaths is here.

Kit List

Now that Martin and I have completed several of these 2-3 day trips we have a bike-packing kit list that works well for us. It is here if anyone is interested. I tend to err on the side of luxury by taking extras like a clean pair of bib shorts and socks, but other than that I think the rest of it is pretty much essential if you want to have a comfortable night and do not want to be tied to eating dinner and breakfast in pubs or cafes.