Last year I had a couple spates of illnesses that I just couldn’t shake, so after a little while off the bike, I decided to take it back to basics, to stay local and get back on the bike with a route that I put together myself. The 2 Downs, one forest. Essentially it starts and finishes in the new forest that’s the Forest part of the title and also takes in a little of the south downs and north Wessex downs. The two Downs.

It was a great adventure and a great beginner route if you want to try something in the south of England, the only downside to a lot of the trails I decided to use along this route is that its quite a lot of single track and at times it can become over grown. Just so you know what some parts could be like. That being said a gravel bike or MTB will do the job, but I definitely prefer to ride these trials on an MTB, single track just feels more fun, but this route also offers lots of old droves and gravel trails so don’t worry too much about what bike, use what you got, 45mm tyres though ideally.

But ultimately it’s a route to explore the compact new forest gravel and the wide open landscape, and the beautiful hilly landscape of the south downs with fast fun descents. As well as enjoying some of the north Wessex downs with sublime views from Gallows down, sitting at the highest point on this ride. This Route is an off-road ride with lots of single track double track old byways. With the odd quiet country lane. With some epic views in places.