Bicycle Touring England

Garry McGivern Travelsonabike2 is cycle touring on Sunday, 27th September 2015. Portsmouth to Bognor Regis. 43 miles. It’s been a long day in the saddle for not very many miles! Mainly down to the fact that I spent most of the day just poodling around Portsmouth once again!

It’s surprising how much you don’t know about a place that you visit all the time! For instance, in Napoleonic times, there used to be a huge chain that spanned the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, which was pulled up to stop enemy ships from entering it! That’s today’s useless piece of information out of the way! I also spent quite a lot of time on Southsea seafront, which is right next to Portsmouth.

As I was cycling along, I found myself caught up in a cycling event called Pedal Portsmouth, a fun ride designed to get people cycling more. I just went along with the flow and joined in. There were some pretty old bikes there as well as the normal, more modern type. There was a good atmosphere about the event with loads of families with small children taking part.

Before I got caught up in the cycling event, I was down in the old docks watching the fishermen bringing in the day’s catch. Before I knew where I was, it was mid-afternoon. I hadn’t made up my mind where I was going to camp tonight. Originally, I was thinking of heading down to the New Forest for the night, but it was getting a bit too late to go all that way, now. Not that it’s that far. Still, it just seemed a waste to get there relatively late, then have to leave tomorrow as the site shuts for the winter! I also pondered having another night in Portsmouth. But in the end, I just decided to have a slow ride home.

I did do a good deed on the way home. I passed two young lads who were looking at one of the bikes, so I stopped to ask them if they were alright. To which they replied, one of the bikes had a flat tyre, so I pumped it up. They only had about half a mile to go, so I’m sure it would have stayed up long enough to get them home.

Follow Garry’s Bicycle Touring Adventures

Subscribe to my blog and follow me as I travel around on my bike. Plus, as a subscriber, you’ll be among the first to receive news and updates on future tours. And, of course, you can always follow me on social media: Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, X, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, where you’ll find more photos and videos from today. I’m also on Flickr, where I’ll publish the photos from this tour once I’m home. Pictures from all my tours and monthly photos can also be found on Flickr.

You can also follow my progress and see where I stop each night by visiting the Where’s Garry web page; there, you’ll find a map of the route I’ve taken so far.