Fabulous!!!!!

Saturday 21st February saw one of the best weekends riding I can ever remember, so good in fact that there were so many memorable views and things to report I am going to split this into two separate chapters. The weather on Saturday was awesome and if you get to look at the video clip once I get it up you can almost sense how good it was, it was almost freaky as it was an early summers day in mid-February. I had initially planned to try and get as far as Swanage and then part way through the day I started to think I could get to Weymouth, in the end I am glad I didn’t try that as I wouldn’t have made it. As planned I arrived at Calshot Castle just after 10 in the morning after a 45min run down the M3 and M27 from home. Calshot castle was built by Henry VIII in 1539, as part of his chain of defences along the English south coast. At the time invasions were feared from either the French or Spanish navies and the Castle was built on a shingle spit close to the deep water channel at the mouth of Southampton Water. Severely damaged by fire in Elizabeth 1st's reign, its repair required 127 New Forest oak trees. For over 400 years the Castle remained a fully manned artillery base and Calshot Naval Air Station opened in 1913, the year when First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill even took his first seaplane flight from Calshot. During the First World War, Calshot provided Channel defence and a training base for pilots. Calshot really shot to the public’s attention when In both 1929 and 1931, it was the venue of the famous Schneider Cup Trophy race and one of the servicemen assigned to help with event was Aircraftsman Shaw, better known today as Lawrence of Arabia. Calshot also played an important role in the Second World War and became home to the Sunderland Flying Boat. After a long, chequered military history, RAF Calshot closed in 1961. The Hangers are still there to this day and the largest is now the home for an indoor cycling track, you can see them behind the Castle.

After taking a couple of photos and having a quick cup of coffee I set off through all the boatyards and sailing clubs and past all the beautifully maintained beach huts, it really must be a gorgeous in the height of the summer, it wasn’t half bad today, good enough for some people to make the effort to come out and do some work on them before the main holiday season. I seriously hope this isn’t a one off. As I have always intended to maintain a route as close to the coast as physically possible therefore my route took me via Lepe Park, again right on the Solent, looking out over to the Isle of Wight, then up to Exbury and Beaulieu and into the New Forrest National Park, to be greeted by 4 donkeys 2 happily grazing on someone’s hedge and the other crossing the road to see what was so good. I was tempted to stop and take a photo, I didn’t and in hindsight I think it was the right move, if I had stopped every time I saw a pony or a donkey in the road, I would still be there now. After Beaulieu it was down to Bucklers Hard and the Sowley Estate, coming out of there I was to come across my favourite cattle grid, NOT, thankfully it was dry, on the previous occasion when I was out doing a recce a couple of years ago it was a bit of wet one, suffice it to say turning a corner over a slippery surface and opening the throttle doesn’t mix and the back end tried to swap ends with the front. You might think I shouldn’t have been so reckless, I promise you I wasn’t, it’s position is really bad, you pull out of a side turning and you have no chance of getting the bike back up straight before you hit it. Through South Baddesley and into Lymington, it was an interesting ride through town as people were out in the their masses and given the way they were dressed it looked more like a Bank Holiday rather than a Saturday Morning in February. On leaving Lymington I encountered my first real U Turn, when I was researching the route I uncovered a Byway and the images on Google Earth clearly show some vehicles on it, you can see what I mean on the post I put up on the 4th of November. Anyway when I got down to the end of the lane it has now been converted to a cycle track only, so it was back up to the Milford Road and to the Village of Everton, what a great name, Then down the back lane from there to Keyhaven and the view out to Hurst Castle.

Hurst Castle was the perfect location to defend the western approach to the Solent. The castle was built by Henry VIII as another one of the chain of coastal fortresses and was completed in 1544. Charles I was imprisoned here in 1648 before being taken to London to his trial and execution. The castle was modernised during the Napoleonic wars and again in the 1870’s when the enormous armoured wings were constructed. Two of the huge 38-ton guns installed in the 1870’s can be viewed in their casemates. During World War II, Hurst was manned with coastal gun batteries and searchlights. I’ve decided to keep a log of all the Castles I’m going to pass on my route around the country, at this rate it must be in the hundreds. Milford on Sea, Barton on Sea past Highcliffe Castle (there’s another one, although this is a 19th century stately home) then through a small housing estate and into Christchurch. The Quay at Christchurch can be a really nice, and busy on a summers day and this wasn’t far behind with the car park full, I had a quick stop to eat my lunch and watch the swans being fed.



Starting off again, I was making really good time and started to think I might get further than Swanage however I thought my best plan would be to get all the way around Poole Harbour and come back over on the Ferry from Studland to Sandbanks. I even had the crazy thought at one point that I might just make Weymouth but more of that in the next post. I left Christchurch by going out through another small housing estate and out on to the Southbourne Coast road, which took me to Boscombe and then Bournemouth, I am going to run out of words on how beautiful the day was I will just let you look at the photos.

It is small wonder that so many people retire to Bournemouth and some of the roads on the way into Bournemouth are full of retirement homes. The only shame is the fact that I had to dodge back into the main part of town on a couple of occasions. Eventually I got on to The Avenue which goes via Canford Hills and on to Shore Road which goes round the southern end of the harbour, I was torn between turning right and heading off around the harbour or take a quick detour down through Sandbanks to the Ferry and finish off my flask of coffee at the small car park there. I met up with a nice couple who were out for a ride from Southampton. It was really nice just sitting there in the warm sun just watching the ferry and I had to tear myself away in the end. I followed the road around the Harbour going through Poole Park, including my second U turn of the day. I missed a turning and I ended up come back down the Blandford Road to Hamworthy and the toll bridge back to Poole Quay, It meant an extra few miles but at least I had gone round one of the other bays in Poole Harbour. Back up the road and then off towards Wareham some of the back lanes to Corfe Castle (4th in one day) Corfe Castle was begun by William the Conqueror soon after his arrival in Britain in 1066. It was served by the surrounding community in return for the use of homes and land, as well as shelter in the Castle in times of trouble. Much of the Isle of Purbeck was a Royal Forest so the hunting of game without royal permission was punishable by death. I decided to take a bit of a different picture of the castle, from the railway society’s yard.



Leaving Corfe Castle I climbed up a hill on the B3351 to Studland at the highest point there is a small car park and viewing area that provided some stunning views back over the harbour, including a view of one of the Oil Wells that dot the area.



Finally it is only a few miles through Studland Village an on to Ferry Rd, to the chain ferry back over to Sandbanks and Poole. It was now getting on and the shadows were lengthening, so I decided it was time to call it a day and head for my overnight stop.



Before which I badly needed some fuel. I took advantage of some rewards points I had saved up over the last couple of years to book myself a room at the Holiday Inn Express in the centre of Poole. I prefer this chain over all the other budget hotels, quite simply you know what you are going to get wherever you go the level of consistency is excellent, some chains do food some don’t and the Poole one seems to be somewhere in between as the only do food during the week, but they do have a good selection of restaurants and takeaways that deliver. So after a couple of bottles of beer at the bar I ordered in a Chinese and spent the evening writing up some notes. The next post will cover Sunday’s ride down to West Bay and then home.

Take care and as Mick says ‘If Carlsberg made great days for riding, this would be one of them’