Monarch's Way

Sunday 15th October Dave (who featured in our 15 minutes of fame on 8th October) and myself had an enjoyable ride from Shoreham to Ford along the Monarch's way. The pace was relaxed, it was nice and sunny and we righted all the wrongs of the world during a conversation that meandered across many subjects.

We left from Shoreham airport, crossed the A27 and climbed past Lancing Ring up to the Monarch's Way. On reaching the Monarch's Way we turned left (west) and just stayed on it! It is not that well signposted and we referred to the map at a couple of places despite having ridden these bridleways previously. The section through Angmering Park was particulalry badly signed. Use OS Explorer maps 121 &122.

The two highlights for me were the climb up from Michelgrove into Michelgrove Park, this was full of tennis ball sized rocks at the bottom that were tough on a hardtail but about 1/4 of the way up I crossed to the ridge on the left. I cleaned it. At the top turn right, the singletrack on the left side of the muddy main track was good fun. The second highlight was the descent from Upper Wepham Wood to The Knell. This was rocky at the top and then horse rutted and rooty half way down followed by a section through chewy mud towards the bottom, it could have gone on for ever as far as I was concerned.

From Ford we got the train back to Shorham. I forgot to take any photo's on the ride until we got to Ford station, so that is what we have!