16/8 Cissbury Stretch

last time we rode in the Bramber area we had a desperate time navigating and getting through all the mud of Angmering forest, we said never again! This was a shame as there was some good riding in the surrounding hills . After  some searching on the web  I found a route that someone had put together that avoided the forest. Having downloaded and modified the route we decided to give it  ago. With an almost perfect temperature for riding all went well as we climbed from Bramber all the way up to Chanctonbury Ring before descending down the awfully steep and rubble strewn SDW down to the A24 where he had to risk life and limb crossing the dual carriageway (a footbridge is badly needed here). Thank goodness we would not have to climb up this section on the way back!

No Navigation Problems At Chanctonbury Ring !

 We came off the SDW at a place called Down's farm but this is where our navigation let us down. We followed the only obvious track ignoring the distress signals from the GPS informing us we were going wrong. At first we made rapid progress along this track but after a while it became more and more overgrown. Maybe we should have gone back to the farm but we were too stubborn for that and assumed we would eventually join the planned route. Eventually the narrow track joined a nice wide more obvious bridleway.  We felt we were heading the right way and so followed this promising track only to realise we were heading in totally the wrong direction , ending back up on the SDW when we should have been heading south away from it. Fortunately we had a paper map of the route and realised that this track would lead straight down to Burpham from where we could rejoin the planned route, so we headed south back down the track. Our newly discovered track proved to be fantastic fun with mile after mile of gentle descending all the way down to Burpham on my favourite type of path (wide with little vegetation) . Once in Burpham we soon discovered the GPS route again  but were surprised to see it followed a footpath. From years of experience we know that some footpaths are as wide as bridleways so we carried on only to find it getting narrower and narrower and totally unsuitable for riding. We gave up on this footpath and decided to take a different bridleway from Burpham . We were now off route so the GPS was useless but thought we would eventually rejoin the route. It wasn't long however before we came across a farm with a big notice that there was no public way through the farm. We tried to go around the farm but just ended up doing three sides of a corn field with no way out. We had no choice we would have to try to get through the farm, hopefully without being seen by some angry farmer (I know that farmers are particularly wary of trespassers at the moment due to all the farm thefts on the news) Bravely we cycled through the farm as quickly as possible trying not to be seen, our nerves were not improved by the sight of  an army tank and some other combat vehicles parked up at the farm! Unfortunately there were no name plates anywhere on the farm and nothing seemed to make any sense , what we could see did not match the map or the GPS. However, the only thing we could recognise in the distance was the sinister bulk of Angmering forest . My heart sank I I really do dislike this forest with its confusing mass of muddy trails but there was nothing for it, as it was the only point of reference, we would just have to ride through it. My gps has a compass function and we realised that if we generally followed an easterly direction we would eventually escape the clutches of the forest. This was easer said than done as there were so many trails and their directions kept changing. Fortunately the trails were less muddy than last year and it was with a great sigh of relief that we escaped our woody prison and made it into open space. Heading east we could see sings of human habitation, hooray we were saved! Not having a clue what village we were in we had to ask some people only to discover it was Patching. We were only a couple of miles away from Myrtle Grove farm. Once there we were back on the planned GPS route. Now we could relax, and had some tea and sandwiches at a bland  little place called High Salvington. Our navigation problems were over and the rest of the route was excellent taking us around one side of the world famous Cissbury ring (largest hill fort in Europe) before a brilliant steady long drag back up to the SDW , finishing with a awesome super-fast descent on a concrete path back down to Bramber.

Paul Happy To Be Back On Track!

This was certainly a day to remember. Myself and Ivan actually rather enjoyed getting lost and going back to basics following  a compass bearing . I am not so sure Paul enjoyed it though, lol. What we do all agree with is that there are some excellent sections in this area and we are not giving up on it yet . Looking at the GPS data for where we went I can now see where we went wrong and have remapped this area yet again. Third time lucky next year?