THE INITIAL DOWNHILL SOON GIVES WAY TO UNDULATIONS. AFTER A MILE COMES THE DEMANDING CLIMB UP TO PILSDON PEN . THE THIRD MILE IS SLIGHTLY DOWNHILL BUT THE FINAL ONE CLIMBS OVER BLACKDOWN HILL. THERE ARE 2 SHORT ROAD STRETCHES; BUT IT IS MAINLY A CROSS COUNTRY STAGE.

  1. Descend the concrete road northwards. Keep straight on where the road turns left to the farm. Follow the track down into a hollow and then climb again. Near the top of the rise, turn left at a finger post. Diagonal left to find a hidden stile just left of the kink in the hedge opposite. Across the next field, keep to the right-hand hedge. Go over a stile and turn left on to a track.

  2. A left turn at a t-junction takes you on to a track which eventually takes you through a farmyard and then up a road. Go straight across this and up to a gate. Diagonal right across the top field and unclip the electric fence to enter a gap to a path above the plantation. A short way along the little path, turn left through a stile into Pilsdon Pen.

  3. On reaching the earthworks, turn right into the outermost ditch. Follow the fence on your right round the fortifications and then go down to a gate. Turn right through a gate and double back slanting up the hill on a well marked track to a stile. Continue on the same slant to cut the corner off an enormous field to a stile on the left-hand hedge, which you see as you reach the apex.

  4. Follow the permissive path along the top of the field keep straight on across a second field to pick up a track just to the left of a third field. Follow the track down and curve left with it to run round 2 sides of the field. At the end turn right through a gate on to a grassy track and follow it to a road.

  5. Turn right and continue along the road, passing the village hall. At the road junction, keep right, and just a few yards past the junction go through a gate on the left. Go straight up the hill to a gateway on the skyline. Slant left slightly to the corner of the hedge. Keep the hedge on your left initially and stay on the ridge going to the left of a lone pine to reach a gate beyond.

  6. Tuck in to the fence on your left, ignoring a track curving away to the right. Keep to the fence until you reach a stile ahead. Keep to the right-hand hedge and leave by a stile. Diagonal left to the far left corner of the next field passing a wooden power line post on the way. Leave through a metal gate in the left-hand fence and run down the right-hand hedge to a road. Turn right into a road to the changeover.

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