Newhaven to Lewes, a shortcut?

When we disembarked from the Dieppe ferry in Newhaven yesterday afternoon Pat and I pondered our options then decided to take the series of paths which follow the Ouse to Lewes. Good memories of riding in Normandy and the pristine afternoon sunshine which greeted us in Newhaven inspired this idea.

With OpenCycleMap running with Viewranger on my phone navigation wasn't a problem. Coming off the bridge which links the station with the town there is a set of lights with a safe crossing which enables cyclists to pick up the West-bound path to ride against the flow of traffic on the North Way, then a small link path to join Elphick Road and beyond on to the cycle route.

The route, most of which is known as The Egrets Way is an ongoing and very commendable project being pushed along by the Ouse Valley Cycle Network (http://ovcnet.ning.com/). The quality of the path varies greatly, from wide and smooth to narrow and diabolical. With our luggage and, in my case, inappropriate wheels (25C slick tyres), we were glad to have explored the route but would not do it again without bikes better suited to offroad riding. At times it was best to ride along up on the levee where the views of the river and landscape were better and at other times the better path seemed to be down on the flat.

At Piddinghoe the path comes out on the Piddinghoe/Kingston Road and after a couple of hundred yards there is a left turn into Harping Hill. It was a mistake to try this; it is fairly steep and we missed the turn off it onto a walking track which appeared to be utterly unsuitable for our sort of cycling. So we rejoined the busy road for half a kilometre and were glad to turn onto the Egrets Way to be alongside the river again.



North of Southease there is a section which was wet and very swampy, whether from heavy rain or higher river levels wasn't apparent. This was the worst bit. I walked most of it.

Just before the route passes underneath the A27 there is a dramatic improvement in the quality of the surface and we arrived, after nearly two hours, at Lewes Station.

 


In all, more of an adventure than we had bargained for though, at rush hour, less dangerous than the dreaded Piddinghoe Road/Kingston Road which we normally take.

~ Tim