Hawkinge, Kent.
Rule No. 9 for this one....if you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
Velominti - rules.
It did rain, and rain, and then just when we thought it stopped, it rained again.
Continuing our quest to cover Kent, we had our second route out from Lyminge, this time heading East and down to the Channel Tunnel terminal, around Hawkinge.
From the village hall car park in Lyminge, we headed back through the village and on to Station Road, turning right towards the village welcome sign. On the left is Greenbanks and, between the doctors surgery and the road is a track that is the start of the byway out of the village, this is a steep tricky ride, concrete and old tarmac up to a muddy trail.
(sems popular with motorbikes).
It heads out to the south east between brambles, a good trail, alongside the golf course, you then exit onto Teddars Leas Road, which we followed around to the bridleway start on the right.
(its about 750 yrds, at the Shearins Bungalow site)
A good route, between fields, tree covered and dips down at the end out onto the road. Here we turned right, down towards Peene, its a quick steep descent with a sharp left hander at the end, leading onto the bastard that is Danton Lane.
This road runs alongside the channel tunnel terminal, it was wet now, really pissing down, and quite frankly miserable. But in an odd way I enjoy the crappy weather and my waterproof sock full up with water make for hard pedalling. We took the right hand fork on the junction at the top of the hill onto Crete Road West, this is a great lane, up over the terminal looking out to sea, with the channel a grey squally mess.
Following the lane along further it dips under the main A20 and then out to meet the busy A260 Canterbury road, some rather shifty crossing skills got us over the road.
Crete Road East now climbs at about 12% up onto the cliffs above Folkestone, we follow the road here for half a mile and just past the houses opposite the closed lane on the right, is an unadopted road on the left.
This is according to some maps "Cut Throat Lane", a good ride across open fields (a white lane on OS maps, always a mystery those!), leading down to join the Alkham Valley Road.
By this time my makeshift OS map was getting a bit soggy, so we headed right along the road, to find the next section of offroad.
With the weather still terrible, and quite fun really, we (well I) totally mis-judged the distance and we ended up taking an early exit on Standen Lane, this led us confusingly towards Hawkinge, where I lost my bearing a bit.
However, at the village the sky cleared, I managed to fold the wet map and get it into my pocket, now resembling a tissue after a trip through the washing machine, it would be used only in dire need.
We took another couple of turns through the village missing my intended routes, and taking a cheeky footpath we finally got back on track, the footpath goes through the woods and out past horse paddocks down to a roundabout at Milgate Farm.
The footpath exit brings you out next to the entrance to the cricket club, and we were back on track, taking this lane leads you up and into the woods and onto the next bridleway, at the right hand corner just past the club is the start. This is a lovely trail through Reinden wood, heavy usage by horses, but flat and wide through the woods. We exit at the end of the woods and head out onto the bridle way north east across the fields towards Swingfield.
Onto Boyinton Lane we turned left and followed the road out to the junction with the A260, and onto Reece Lane.
We turned left right heading back on our loop now, onto Hoad Road, following the lane until the next bridleway, at about a mile the road bears to the left and the bridleway is on the right. (the trail straight ahead is a byway).
Here it runs down into a wood to a gate, and then into an open field, up and down a dip and back alongside the woods to the exit on the right, some parts are awkward grass covered tracks.
Out from here onto Ridge Row, we rode straight down to Paddlesworth to join the next off road section. This is another bridleway heading west.
This is another great flowing bridleway between a hedge and fence, down and across a field to a complete mystery, no regular traffic, or signs of horses. walkers etc, so using our best judgement we just headed for what looked like a lane on the far side of the field, it's a shame when this happens and you feel a bit of a failure for not picking up the trail, or working out where it should be.
We found the end......
and then the start of the next one on the other side of the road.
This is our last bridleway over fields heading back to Lyminge, its a good one, grassy and flowing, a few gates to get through and a section through a farmyard and down through a wooded section, there is a nice long downhill section at the end running to the village.
And we're back... despite the weather, it was again great to be out seeing more of the county.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Loop out from Lyminge
A Loop out from Lyminge
As the distances to the start of our rides get further away, we’re pushed for time on a Saturday morning to get it done (looking back I can see I've not updated this for over a year, very slack!).
Today we started from Lyminge, (the removal of the “ly” from the village sign is always worth a smirk).
There is free parking at the village hall, which is where we start from.
Heading out from the village hall on the byway at the top end of the car park, its a roughly used small climb on a grassy bridleway. At the crest of the hill it becomes a tree lined singletrack between two open fields, good and flowing down to a gate at the bottom and across a sheep paddock out to the road.
(Sheep shit, the stickest of the shits).
We turned left here for a road section along the Sandling Road, a bit of a drag with some high hedges and traffic, at the junction with the A20 (Ashford Road), the byway entrance is on the right.
byway entrance
The byway now runs west through a wooded section and out into an open chalky surface, and then at the end back to an overgrown doubletrack, its a good diversion. The exit appears out on the road (the B2068).
byway exit
We turned left here heading south (ish), onto Stone Street and through Standford, and take the right hand turn onto Kennett Lane, followed this around and then over to Hayton Road. About 500 yards along the road is the entrance to the bridleway, it looks like (and is) a track to an industrial yard, but the route goes through here and out towards the field.
Bridleway Start.
It takes a few turns and to be honest I think we lost it a bit and ended up on a track out to Swan Lane.
Further down Swan Lane is the entrance to another bridleway which essentially joins the one we lost.
We followed this and took it under the M20, the trail then passes between the M20 and the channel tunnel rail link. You turn right under the railway and out onto an open field, no signpost, and the route is a bit of a mystery.
We aimed for the lonely tree in the middle of the field and rode over towards the farm, which luckily turned out to be the bridleway.
Bridleway at Barrow Hill
You exit the trail on the Ashford Road (A20) and it was a long road drag on the busy A20 to get to the exit for the A261 to Hythe. This is the bottom end of the loop really, and we took this road up the hill, there is an entrance to a Byway on the right, which is a good ride through the woods and out onto farm land, We overshot the bridleway / byway junction and had to double back, the bridleway is on the left hand side and runs diagonal back to the road.
Byway start on A261
This takes you back to the A261 at Oxenden Farm, at Pedlinge, a good farm track. It crosses the road and heads out into the fields, past a chapel, with a rickety wooden gate.
Pedlinge bridleway
This takes you on a nice route through to Saltwood, we lost the bridleway at the end by went through the woods and over the stream and out into the village. A good section with a quick downhill.
Up the hill into Saltwood and we were looking for the castle where our next off road section was due to start, we cocked it up and ended up retracing out steps and heading the right way.
The next trail runs alongside the castle (from Grange Road to Castle Road), the left hand track.
Saltwood bridleway
The trail runs under and old railway down a small valley and then up and out along a fence up to BlackHouse Hill, its a grassy bumpy climb up to the road and gate, but take 5 mins to turn around and see the caslte peer over the tree tops.
Saltwood Castle
A quick dash down the road to the bottom and the next trail starts, I'd take Cliff Road on the left then head up to Sene Park, a rather interesting estate of houses all vying for a sea view.
The climb up from Sene park is a steep rocky trail up to the golf course. There is a small joy riding across the green lawn of the fairway and onto the woods opposite.
Through the woods, out onto open fields and all the way to the M20 on the bridleway, its a good ride, through the MOD camp at Dibgate and onto the Elham Valley way and over the M20.
Our route now takes us up to Peene and onto the old Elham valley railway, a flat gravel trail. It stops sadly, and you have to take a cheeky footpath to get out onto the road again. So we went through Etchinghill and out to the original bridleway back to the car park at Lyminge.
Good ride, great variety of trails and sights, (you can see the sea!).
As the distances to the start of our rides get further away, we’re pushed for time on a Saturday morning to get it done (looking back I can see I've not updated this for over a year, very slack!).
Today we started from Lyminge, (the removal of the “ly” from the village sign is always worth a smirk).
There is free parking at the village hall, which is where we start from.
Heading out from the village hall on the byway at the top end of the car park, its a roughly used small climb on a grassy bridleway. At the crest of the hill it becomes a tree lined singletrack between two open fields, good and flowing down to a gate at the bottom and across a sheep paddock out to the road.
(Sheep shit, the stickest of the shits).
We turned left here for a road section along the Sandling Road, a bit of a drag with some high hedges and traffic, at the junction with the A20 (Ashford Road), the byway entrance is on the right.
byway entrance
The byway now runs west through a wooded section and out into an open chalky surface, and then at the end back to an overgrown doubletrack, its a good diversion. The exit appears out on the road (the B2068).
byway exit
We turned left here heading south (ish), onto Stone Street and through Standford, and take the right hand turn onto Kennett Lane, followed this around and then over to Hayton Road. About 500 yards along the road is the entrance to the bridleway, it looks like (and is) a track to an industrial yard, but the route goes through here and out towards the field.
Bridleway Start.
It takes a few turns and to be honest I think we lost it a bit and ended up on a track out to Swan Lane.
Further down Swan Lane is the entrance to another bridleway which essentially joins the one we lost.
We followed this and took it under the M20, the trail then passes between the M20 and the channel tunnel rail link. You turn right under the railway and out onto an open field, no signpost, and the route is a bit of a mystery.
We aimed for the lonely tree in the middle of the field and rode over towards the farm, which luckily turned out to be the bridleway.
Bridleway at Barrow Hill
You exit the trail on the Ashford Road (A20) and it was a long road drag on the busy A20 to get to the exit for the A261 to Hythe. This is the bottom end of the loop really, and we took this road up the hill, there is an entrance to a Byway on the right, which is a good ride through the woods and out onto farm land, We overshot the bridleway / byway junction and had to double back, the bridleway is on the left hand side and runs diagonal back to the road.
Byway start on A261
This takes you back to the A261 at Oxenden Farm, at Pedlinge, a good farm track. It crosses the road and heads out into the fields, past a chapel, with a rickety wooden gate.
Pedlinge bridleway
This takes you on a nice route through to Saltwood, we lost the bridleway at the end by went through the woods and over the stream and out into the village. A good section with a quick downhill.
Up the hill into Saltwood and we were looking for the castle where our next off road section was due to start, we cocked it up and ended up retracing out steps and heading the right way.
The next trail runs alongside the castle (from Grange Road to Castle Road), the left hand track.
Saltwood bridleway
The trail runs under and old railway down a small valley and then up and out along a fence up to BlackHouse Hill, its a grassy bumpy climb up to the road and gate, but take 5 mins to turn around and see the caslte peer over the tree tops.
Saltwood Castle
A quick dash down the road to the bottom and the next trail starts, I'd take Cliff Road on the left then head up to Sene Park, a rather interesting estate of houses all vying for a sea view.
The climb up from Sene park is a steep rocky trail up to the golf course. There is a small joy riding across the green lawn of the fairway and onto the woods opposite.
Through the woods, out onto open fields and all the way to the M20 on the bridleway, its a good ride, through the MOD camp at Dibgate and onto the Elham Valley way and over the M20.
Our route now takes us up to Peene and onto the old Elham valley railway, a flat gravel trail. It stops sadly, and you have to take a cheeky footpath to get out onto the road again. So we went through Etchinghill and out to the original bridleway back to the car park at Lyminge.
Good ride, great variety of trails and sights, (you can see the sea!).
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