Forced Back By The English Bank Holiday Weather

Okay so it wasn't quite Scott of the Antarctic conditions but two hundred feet above sea level, raining pouring heavily, mist so thick you can't see where you are going means it's time to say enough is enough and return home.

We left Christchurch on the 7:13 train on Saturday morning in brilliant sunshine, excited, hopeful and almost desperate to get to Winchester to begin our four day adventure. I think if we could fast forward until Sunday morning taking everything into account that as to happen we may well have got off the train at Winchester crossed the station and come back home. That's not to say I am not proud of what we did achieve on Saturday, I am, immensely proud of Nathalie - on her first long distance cycle. Seeing her cry when she realised we couldn't go on and thinking of the people she was letting down, her sponsors, showed how much she wanted to complete the course.

We actually completed 27 miles from Winchester to Buriton, it should only have been 25 but somebody had changed the course of the South Downs Way at one point and we, like many others according to a friendly resident of Cheriton, were sent on a wild goose chase. The journey was hard, very hard - it was hot, windy and I'd managed to drink all three litres of fluid I was carrying within four hours, something I think I would have serious trouble attempting whilst not exercising.

At one point, after approx. 16 miles, Nathalie's rear tyre came off the rim. I was actually about a hundred yards ahead of her at the time. We were cycling together but we were separated on a particularly steep chalk path where we had to get off our bikes and push. We didn't feel too bad about this when most of the seventeen members of a cycle club on a day trip also took it in turns to fall off their bikes. Anyway I stopped and waited for Nathalie at the top of a hill near HMS Mercury which is some sort of military facility. I was admiring the views from Fawley in the south west round towards Hayling Island and east towards Chichester and Bognor when I heard a whistle blowing. I dropped by bike and ran back down the track only to find Nathalie carrying her bike, we carried the bike between us to a piece of flat ground to assess the situation. Something then happened that rekindled my faith in human nature and also showed that there is an almost spiritual relationship between cyclists that doesn't exist between car drivers. No sooner had we got the bike upside down then, and here is a major contradiction to my last line, a car driver on the way into a field to fly his glider stopped and asked us if we needed help. He introduced himself and said if we needed help to come into the field and find him. Only about ten second passed before a cyclist stopped and asked us what the problem was, I showed him the tyre and he said "Do you mind if I have a go fixing it?" What could we say? He put the inner tube back inside the tyre and the tyre onto the rim and rode off leaving us to pump the tyre up. I began to pump the tyre up but to be honest it seemed as if little difference was being made and then three more cyclists - heading east to west arrived. They asked what the problem was and after they had had a look suggested that it might be quicker to change the inner tube, one of the three said to one of his mate, "Fancy having a go?" It was like watching a Formula One racing team, the wheel was off, the new tube came out of my backpack and was inserted, the tyre back on the bike all within about a minute. I offered to buy them a drink, they declined and they were about to set off when the subject of riding the South Downs Way came up. They said they were supposed to be riding the same stretch as us on the Sunday but had pulled out because of the bad weather forecast - from our advantage point several hundred feet up we could see rainclouds spreading from both the east and the west. The three musketeers rode off. Well if that wasn't enough off the milk of human kindness we had only just finished pumping up Nathalie's rear tyre when another couple of riders stopped and asked us if we were okay - it was overwhelming to be honest, seven complete strangers stopping to offer help. As Nathalie put it, rather cuttingly I thought, "perhaps it was because you looked like you didn't know what you were doing." Kids eh?

Although the journey was to end in frustration there is one part of the Saturday that will stay fixed in my mind for a long time. After fixing Nathalie's bike we had a five or six mile section to Butser Hill. Unfortunately when our roadside helpers had put Nathalie's rear wheel back on the nut had been tightened in the wrong place, this is something I have done myself, this meant the rear wheel was rubbing against the frame making cycling at any speed impossible and also degrading the tyre. We got to Butser Hill and whilst Nathalie went off to get some water, by now I had only had about a cup of water in three hours, I turned the bike upside down and showed I wasn't completely useless by fixing the problem. A couple of bottles of water later and we were ready to cycle the remaining four miles to the B & B we were booked into for Saturday night. Anyway you have to cycle down the side of Butser Hill to get to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park. Butser Hill is, at 270 metres high, the highest point of the South Downs and cycling down the grass slope with the brakes on and looking down to see the computer tells you that you are doing nearly twenty miles an hour on grass avoiding rabbit holes and small humps and hillocks was absolutely invigorating - I'm just glad we were heading west to east, I'm not sure we could have pushed the bikes up the hill.

We arrived at our B & B at just after six and having spoken to Janis on the phone, had a bath and something to eat and drink we were both in bed by just after nine. At just after eleven I was woken by the rain, now given that I could sleep through an air raid it was quite something. I lay there for an hour just listening to the rain getting heavier and heavier. I woke up at six o'clock, ready to get going and pulled the curtains back and suddenly realised we weren't going anywhere. The hills around us were covered in a thick mist, the rain was pouring down as heavy as it had been when it woke me up and there was a distant rumble of thunder. Nathalie woke up just after seven and I said, "I think we're going home."

We had breakfast and waited for the weather to clear-up, it didn't it got worse. Our hostess told us that the local weather forecast wasn't good and that, in her opinion of living there for thirty years, once we got up on Harting Down the path would be too dangerous to continue. We finished breakfast, packed, and waited for the weather to change - it didn't.

We decided to cycle back to Petersfield and try and make our way home by train. Being Sunday I wasn't sure how we would fare (no pun intended) but fortunately any alterations to services on South West Trains are taking place today, Bank Holiday Monday, and not yesterday. Even the three mile cycle to the station at Petersfield took on a slightly surreal edge when we found ourselves in the middle of a cycle road race. All these team vans, cyclists, mechanics etc, standing at the side of the road watching is cycle past. Even as one of the competitors sped past us on his carbon wheeled, aluminium framed, racing bike, doing about thirty miles an hour on the rain slick road, he still managed a "Morning." Cyclists eh?

We caught a train from Petersfield to Fratton, Fratton to Eastleigh and Eastleigh home. Exhausted, disappointed, frustrated and yet determined that we will attempt the rest of the 100 miles at a later stage, probably by doing the train journey in reverse and starting again where we left off on Sunday morning. Although feeling extremely guilty about aborting the ride I was at least heartened when I saw the weather forecast for today and the run through yesterdays weather picture for the south. Cycling on chalk and grass through heavy rain and thunder is not something I really want to do if I don't have to thank you.

(I'm sorry if any of this is too self indulgent and/or garbled but I want to get it down on the page whilst it is all still fresh)