Cracking route out exploring the delights of the Wye countryside. Free parking just outside Wye, popular with walkers.
The start is the car park on the hill above the Wye Valley Nature reserve on Coldharbour Lane, from here head left (east) along Coldharbour Lane, towards Hastingleigh. Ride through the village and on the left is the bridleway entrance, take this. It starts following the fence line in the woods and then carries on to a track, there are a few options off the path (other bridleways and footpaths etc.), we took a left hander in the woods and then instead of staying on the bridleway, strayed onto the footpath out to Hassell street.
Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.... we took the opportunity to have a rethink and re-route.
At the crossroads where the path joined the road we too the right hand exit onto Woods Lane, and followed this onto the next bridleway entrance.
It sits on the left hand side, as you come down a hill, easy to miss and rush past. It rises diagonally across a field and heads west, we didn't, and again followed a footpath the wrong way.
This led us through a small wood and out onto Richdore Road. We turned left here, following the road up to Penny Pot lane, and into Eggringe Wood. This is a great area, and feels like it needs further exploring...
Just into the woods on the road is the byway entrance on the left, its a well surfaced trail, big enough for cars etc, so was a breeze to fly down, it drops about 100 ft, down through the woods onto fields and out onto the road at Sole Street.
A left here and a right down Hobbs hill towards Crundale, up a small climb before the village next to the church is a byway entrance. The view from here is good, a great spot for a water break and take in the landscape, then you're off. It's a great trail, single farm track that rises and falls along the top of the ridge, then enters the woods and then out onto a farm entrance lane, turn left and take the next byway entrance on the right, this drops down towards Coombe Manor and a bridleway that crosses the trail. Here we turned right onto the bridleway to head back along the valley. This trail skirts around the edge of the wood under the byway we have just ridden, at the time of our visit, it was hard work, long grass, ruts and overhanging brambles etc. Once you hit the byway you are back onto the farm track and riding the valley bottom, again its a great view. (Crundale Downs).
At the end of the byway turn left and this takes you up the hill westwards, its a bit of a drag but a moderate climb, about 150ft up the valley side. Once you meet the road turn left through Warren Wood, there is another byway on the left at the end of the wood, it's a short climb up a track with wooden steps, bit of a pain, but good to get to the top and through the woods. We rode through Marriage farm, down towards Penn street farm and then right out into the Olantigh Estate. You can take the other routes here back towards Wye, we went along the lane missed another bridleway and ended at the "t" junction. Just opposite was what looked like a path, but with some bike use so we gave it a go, it's a trail that runs the length of the long plantation (as denoted on the OS map), and is a good diversion, heading through the woods on a nice singletrack to come out onto the Olantigh road and head back towards Wye.
On the left just past the school is the bridleway we missed earlier, so we took it, a nice straight ride out of the village up to the lane, we headed south, (right) back towards Coldharbour Lane, but being the explorer types we are, instead of just heading back to the car park, we decided to try and find the route along the top of the hill, listed as a bridleway on the map.
There is a footpath on the left with two stiles to climb over, and then a bastard of a hill, hard enough on foot but pushing the bike up was horrible. Past some spillways cut into the hill and finally onto the top we joined the bridleway and dodged cow shit all the way.
At the end it drops down to the road again and is a quick spin up to the car park.
A great area, good ride, with plenty of chance to go back and right the wrongs we made....
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