News: I’ve just pressed the button on my annual cycling holiday next June. For the last couple of years I’ve started the week with a gravel event and then moved onto my digs and spent the week exploring the area on my bike.
Despite being a great event, I think riding two editions of the Glorious Gravel’s Cambrian Mountain Epic is enough now so I was looking to do something similar elsewhere notwithstanding I’ve done most of Wales now. There are other places in the UK I want to see.
Depending what I see in the media I usually make a shortlist in my head throughout the year. I might be watching a travel program, something innocuous like Countryfile or see a post on social media. This year’s list included Northern Ireland, the Lake District, Northumberland and Kielder Forest. I even reconsidered the Ardennes region in Belgium too, but in the end I’ve gone for somewhere dictated by the event I ride on my first weekend. All still on my list though.
For 2026 I’ve decided to plan a Gravelton Gravel Weekender putting two routes together around the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley for riders to tackle on a Saturday and Sunday. I enjoyed the recce rides so much I’ve decided to go back and incorporate them into my week off. I’ll go down Friday night and spend a couple of nights in a local AirBnB, ride consecutive days with a bit of social time in the evenings and then on Monday I’ll drive down to the New Forest and spend the rest of the week exploring that. It’s only 2.5hrs from the Forest of Dean.
I have fond childhood memories of the New Forest aswell as being a great location to ride a bike. In the early 80s my mom and dad used to take me and my sister on holiday to a caravan park there. We used to stay in my grandparents van. Loved it. I can still remember the famous ponies roaming around wild, the motor musuem at Beaulieu and the tank museum but I’ve never been back! The holiday park was in a town called New Milton where I’ve booked which is on the edge of Forest proper. Will it be how I remember?
Looking at the maps, it looks like the area has an abundance of trails to enjoy and no doubt in the coming months I’ll be spending hours buried in them coming up with routes.
The gravel bike is going to get a battering that week!
Adios!
I’m always wary of relying on childhood memories 🫣
Sounds like a great holiday though and I’m sure you will make the most of it, you usually seem to get the full value out of these trips 😊