Easter Bivi- A Microadventure
- freckers1984
- May 19, 2019
- 3 min read
A long weekend with nothing planned always fills me with disappointment so when my friend Gavin invited me to go ride bikes and sleep on the beach with him and some of his friends I jumped at the chance.
The route started near Battle, East Sussex, only about 40 miles from my house so very local compared to my standard Welsh, Northern or Overseas adventures. It was planned by Jim, who I've chatted to on Instagram but had never met in person, also along for the ride was Andy, who was coming down from London for a weekend of the great outdoors.
As is standard with any group cycling event, the morning started with allocated faff time, bag adjusting, coffee drinking, mug dangling... all the essential requirements of a bikepacking trip. Added to this was some extra protective frame taping from me, as I was riding the new Mason Cycles In Search Of demo bike for the weekend.
Around 10.30 we finally set off, Jim immediately headed into the woodland single track opposite his house, much to the joy of Gav who was riding a *very* nose heavy Marin complete with Pizza rack and front panniers.
The Weald is an area I’ve not ridden in before , it varied between pine forests, rolling green hills and bluebell filled woodlands, with the odd country lane and a few stream crossings thrown in for good measure.
We had a route of around 50 miles planned, although the final destination, Winchelsea Beach, was only around 20 miles from battle as the crow flies. Snaking around Jims local bridleways and woodlands was a pleasure, I love to ride new trails and see new places. The guys are all lovely and Jim had also factored in refreshment stops in the form of Lunch and coffee at Robertsbridge, and village Pub, a further stop at the Three legs Brewery, purely for hydration purposes I’m sure.
After another hour or so of woodland riding the town or Rye came into view. An unseasonably warm easter weekend meant the sea beckoning as we rolled on to Winchelsea beach, bikes were leant against the groynes as we stripped down to our shorts and hobbled our way over the pebbles to the flat sand and still water.
A few gasps and some face pulling later and we were in... a brief and "refreshing" swim was followed by some basking on the stones to dry off. Gav had been the only one sensible enough to bring a towel, which he kindly passed around as some form or modesty for changing out of our soggy chamois.
Once suitably dry we got back on our bikes to go to the local pub for dinner, fresh mackerel followed by apple pie for me, Andy also managed to sweet-talk the bar staff into selling us a few of their "display only" logs for our fire.
Gavs pizza rack came into its own here, we loaded him up with logs and headed back to the beach to find our bedroom for the night, picking up kindling along the way under the fading light of a beautiful sunset.
The next morning I woke early and shuffled my way out of my bivi bag to look east to the sunrise, the northerly wind had picked up during the night so we stayed warm in our sleeping bags, lined up on the groyne like sleepy down covered catepillars.
Once the sun has risen enough to warm us through we emerged from our bags. Coffee was ground and brewed, snacks were consumed and bikes were repacked. Riding home was a more direct road route but the lanes were quiet as we passed farmland and small villages on our way to Jims for a second breakfast and more coffee.
It had been a perfect way to spend an Easter weekend, the Mason had been the perfect bike for the route, I made new friends and saw new places.... lets do it again sometime. :)
Additional photos by @jimclarkson @andymatthews and @themanfromicon. More of this kind of thing from Gavin over on https://themanfromicon.net