JEVINGTON, SOUTH DOWNS

DISTANCE 21.5KM (13.4 MILES) CLIMBING 510M (1,673FT) TIME 1HR 30MINS TO 2HRS

Route summary: A perfect quick little night-ride offering a wide variety of trails and views, with spooky singletrack and fast trails with big open skies. There’s also a nice pub at the end (and on the route if you fancy), plus lots more fun riding to explore in Friston Forest

Start/finish: Jevington car park (postcode BN26 5QL, grid ref: TQ 562/013)

1 Take the bridleway out the back of the car park, which heads steeply uphill to Friston Forest. Go into the forest on a fireroad, over the first junction, to a clearing where the track widens. Join the singletrack into the trees on the right. Follow this trail all the way down to the fireroad at the bottom.

2 Go left for around 600m, then sharp right on a wide track, uphill. Head left at the top, parallel to a road on your right. Keep ahead until you reach the end of the forest (don’t bear left, downhill). Go through a gate and emerge at a junction of roads (with large grassy triangle).

3 Head right on a ‘no through road’ (Crowlink Lane) by a bus stop and church. After 250m, when the trees/ hedge on the left stop, opposite houses on your right, turn left through a gate, on a bridleway across a field. Follow this right, emerging in East Dean. Go right on the road, bearing right at the fork at the end of the green (signed ‘no through road’).

4 Join a bridleway at the end of the road, uphill through some trees. Continue down a grassy descent towards the sea. Bear left at the junction by the houses near the

cliff, to emerge at the road by the Birling Gap car park. Go ahead/right on Beachy Head Road, bearing left. Join the bridleway on the right, at the end of the car park.

5 Follow this as it runs parallel with the road. After it bears right, keep an eye out for a left turn after 200m, by the lighthouse. Take this down to and over the road, joining a wide concrete track opposite. Go uphill, keeping ahead on this track until a bridleway just before the farm. Bear right on this, following it along the top of the hill.

6 Cross a road onto another grassy track. Follow this to a grassy track crossing before the trees and turn left, to follow the South Downs Way. Keep ahead, following the SDW signs, over a couple of roads and past the golf course. Eventually, descend to Jevington and go left back to the car park to finish.

Note: There are a number of great singletrack trails to explore within this forest, if you wish. Check out www. roughrideguide.co.uk/routes.asp for more information.