Low winter sun

With the year nearly over, I was keen to squeeze in one last trip. In January I was hoping to get at least 1 trip a month away. Foolishly optimistic as it turned out. A dozen is a steep target unless your life revolves around bikepacking. Mine doesn't.

But one more would take me to seven in 2025, up from five in 2024 - so progress of a kind.

But where? Winter trips require a certain amount of caution. Not only is the weather generally grim, more importantly, daylight is a rapidly diminishing commodity. There would be just 8 1/2 hours of daylight on the 25th November - my planned date - from 07.44 to 16.15. So I reckoned that a 50 - 60 km route spread over two days would fit the bill. And one with a start and finish easily accessible from Clapham Junction; ideally with no changes. This led me to choose a route called Jurassic Roller Coaster from the

Laurence McJannet Bikepacking book. Direct train from Clapham? Check. 50km? Check. In the book he suggests taking the A375 from Honiton to Putts Corner to the most Northerly part of the loop, but I decided to take a steeper but quieter route away from the station. GPX below.

Sidmouth_loop.gpx

Download GPX • 4.38MB

Although the train is direct, it's also very slow - taking 3 and a half hours to wend its way west. And on the day it was also very full. Why South Western Railway could only provide 3 carriages instead of the advertised 6 is a bit of mystery. Having dutifully booked my bike space, I got on to find another 5 bikes all crammed into space for 2. Had they booked? No idea. Luckily most of the people (and bikes) got off at Woking or Basingstoke so I had a seat for a good chunk of the trip.

Arriving in Honiton at 12.03 meant I had 4 hours of daylight to cover the 25 odd km to Sidmouth. According to the map it was over 60% metalled roads or paths, but the other 40% were anything but. Storms Amy and Claudia evidently dumped a lot of rain in the South West - the bridlepaths were generally underwater or thick gloopy mud. On the upside the weather was great - bright and cold. But even as I pedalled away from the station I was already thinking about the damp, cold and dark night ahead of me. I arrived at Sidmouth seafront around 3.15 pm; ample time to find the bivvy location suggested in the book. The book info section suggests Conger Pool, Sandy Cove - some 2.5km west along the costal path. But the narrative describes Tortoiseshell Rocks - just 1km along the beach from Sidmouth. So I went there, and didn't like what I found: a keen wind coming off the sea; no natural wind shelter and lumpy shingle, immediately beneath some very fragile looking red sandstone cliffs. The views, though, in both directions were amazing. The low winter light and golden hour making the cliffs and sunset simply spectacular.

I had two options: find a more suitable spot further along the route or pay for somewhere. With dark fast approaching and no other bivvy spots mentioned in the route description, I caved in and turned to Google maps. The biggest factor for me is simply the length of darkness at this time of year - 16 hours of night is a long time to be huddled in a sleeping bag. And it turns out that an out of season seaside town with over 25 hotels makes for quite flexible pricing. £58.50 for a room with partial sea view (whatever that means). Getting the bike into the room (I never take a bike lock on these trips) was a bit of a challenge, but not insurmountable.

Not the best framing - but you get the picture - a muddy mtb bike jammed into a small room.

Having wussed out on the sleeping I was determined not to wuss out on the cooking. But how? My £58.50 didn't get me a balcony and I didn't fancy going to the beach to get the stove going. Luckily I'd recently made a pot cosy. There are tons of YouTube videos to follow - here's the one I used: https://youtu.be/-FTln2_5Pgo?si=7w7-b_11CNho4amy

And equally luckily I'd brought along some fresh Family Rana pasta (Basil and Pine Nut Ravioli since you ask - 820 calories per pack). So the meal prep was a cinch - simply bung the ravioli in my 650ml titanium mug - pour boiling water from the room kettle to cover - slip on the cozy and wait 5 minutes - strain and pour over some chilli oil. Bingo. As a bonus the room came with two sachets of Clipper instant hot chocolate. So I even had some pudding. Plus a TV to watch.

My indoor kitchen

After a solid night's sleep I was up before dawn to make sure I could start as soon as possible. It was a glorious winter morning - bright and crisp - with a hard frost. The scrunch of tyres cutting through a frosty trail is beautifully unique. And less than an hour later I discovered Mutters Moor - a flat sheltered area ideally for a bivvy. I'll know for next time. But the kilometres sped by. In next to no time I was back at Honiton station. 24 hours after I'd arrived.

So that's it - my final trip of 2025. 692 kms and 13,005m of ascent.

Roll on 2026.