The Southern way

The southern way is a route I put together to take me from the east coast starting in margate all the way across the south of England to finish in Land’s end, Cornwall. This 500 mile (800km) bikepacking route that has over 4400ft (13400m) of elevation gain will take you on an adventure through some of the most beautiful locations along the south of England, from starting heading across the Kent downs with the rolling green countryside to making your way to the hilly South downs national park where the views are epic, and your legs will burn. Across the new forest with some easy pedalling, which is a welcome break after the south downs way. But don’t get too comfortable because you will be heading around the Jurassic coast where the hills return. But not to worry because there are lots of great places to stop off for a swim and many great trails and epic views along this coastline. Once you have made it along the Dorset and Devon coastline you will enjoy a flat easy pedal around the Exe Estuary before making your way to the beautiful Dartmoor. Where you will get to enjoy the beauty of the Dartmoor colours and the ponies running wild. You will head across to prince town on after a couple of steep climbs, where from there you will be following the old prince town railway line. Which is a nice gradual down hill all the way to Tavistock. Here you are very close to entering into the final county of this epic adventure, Cornwall, where the lanes get narrow and steep. But I have managed to find some flat miles from Bodmin to Padstow along the camel trail, where you should try to stop and get your first pasty of the trip. The final section of this adventure has you pedalling your way along the old mining trials, nice single track gravel trails for a while before descending into Hayle for another pasty. Well, I’d recommend you do anyway. Because once you leave Hayle you have some tough last miles ahead as you climb out of Hayle and head across some Cornish moorland, being exposed this place can be pretty brutal if you don’t have the weather in your favour. But once you are through this last section, you will arrive at Land’s end and will be finishing your adventure.

This route isn’t overly technical with the trails most of the trails are either double track bridal way’s, gravel forest tracks, bike lanes and country lanes. Some Busier roads, but most have some form of shared use bike lane and are quite short. However, there is quite a lot of elevation gain along this route, so depending on your ability some pushing may be required. The toughest section will be along the south downs way, although this is very a very well-used trail it can be tough, easily exposed to fast winds and bad weather combined with the steep hills can make this section of the route a slog. On a good day though it is still a challenge but a beautiful one. If you can take your time here, it’s worth it. The New forest and around to the Jurassic coast is nice and easy using new forest country roads gravel tracks and then the castleman trail way make this a nice easy stretch where you can recover from the south downs. You will need to take a ferry on this route as you head over to the Jurassic coast, it’s just a small chain ferry that runs most of the year between sandbanks and Studland and costs £1 for bicycles. The road leading up to the ferry can get busy in the summer month, and the cycle lane along here is just paint. So take it easy.

One of my favourite coastline to cycle along is the Jurassic coast, Some incredible views and some great swimming spots, on this route I have taken you over to Chapman pool which is well worth the stop if you want some nice quite hidden cove swimming. You will just need to go slightly off route after Worth Matravers, Instead of following the route right go left and through the gate, follow the bridalway all the way to the beach to enjoy the swim. This route does go through a MOD firing range so you will need to check it’s passable at the time you are doing it, it’s open most of the school holidays and most weekends You can check here. After the firing ranges, which is a awesome road descent, you will head to the famous Lulworth cove, well worth a swim and a good little spot to restock on supplies, as the next shop isn’t until Bridport which can feel a long way off with some of the steep hills along this coastline. Most of the trails along this coastline are all easy to ride in terms of technical ability, but there is one as you head to the highest point on the Jurassic coast. Golden Cap the trail leading you up to it can get a bit over grown and narrow and there are normally a few walkers along this section, so you will most likely be hiking up here.

In terms of what bike the gravel bike is going to be the best tool for the job here or a fast rolling Xc bike, I used the flat bar gravel bike for this route, and it worked great there are plenty of steep trails, but there are also a lot of flat rolling miles where you will want them fast rolling tyres. You won’t want anything too sluggish. You will want easy gears, though there are plenty of 20% + gradient climbs to tackle of this route. And good working brakes. With over 500 miles and, 44000ft of elevation gain although not the most technical route out there and with plenty of places to stock up it will still need someone with a bit of experience to get through the miles. I took around 6 days to complete this route, but I’d recommend anywhere from 7 to 14 days to really enjoy it. Although starting from margate and heading to lands does put you in the likelihood that you will probably have some headwinds along the way, I do think the trails run a little nice this way. I think the south downs is slightly easier this direction, especially after the halfway point, and the prince town railway is all in a downhill direction, making for some easy miles. Same with the Cuckoo trail.

I have broke the route below into 5 sections to make it easier on your GPS device, but the full route is also included. You can also check out the route on Komoot, If you make a copy of the route on Komoot, just bear in mind that Komoot likes to change things without permission.