Bedgebury Kent

We rode the Bedgebury (on A21 south of Tonbridge) singletrack in Kent back in March 2006, at this time the freeride part was not open.

The facilities are good, a new centre has been built next to a lake with ample carparking, an excellent cafe and a well stocked bike shop. Parking is a pretty steep at £5-00 for the day with no discounts for an hourly rate. We bought the map at the bikeshop and set off.

Bedgebury has been home to mtb trails for many years and the singletrack uses a mix of newly constructed trail together with resurfaced older trails. The terrain is mostly flat although there are a couple of very shallow valleys that have streams in the bottom with plank bridges to cross them.

The singletrack is not technical or challenging and has no rocks or roots. The most difficult thing is going way too fast and not making the abrupt and very sharpe (right angle) turns. After the first couple of mishaps we went slower. The first half is pretty tame stuff but approximately 3/4 of the way round it gets better, this is where it uses the resurfaced older singletrack. Signposting was a bit of a mess, a number of times we came to a fireroad 'T' junction with zero indication of which way to go. Our buddies who rode at Bedgebury in August report that signposting has not been improved. Signposting does need to be addressed.

Would we go again? Perhaps, as a family run out it would be excellent. If we visit again we would use the new singletrack to get to the older forest trails and ride these. As it stands the purpose built singletrack is not really worth it when there are much better trails closer to home.