Green route Canford Heath to Bournemouth via Bourne Valley Greenway
If you know the Bournemouth -Poole conurbation youll know that the hills and wild country is in Canford Heath in the North, and Bournemouth town centre where any culture is, is by the beach in the middle of the bay. If you ever travel between the Poole area and the Bournemouth town area you’ll also know that most of the roads between these two places are queues during happy hour, like when you need to use them before work or after work all week. Autumn is a superb time to discover this route, with awesome arboriculture seen this season, read on.
Journey choices:- Mountbatten arms roundabout anybody?, Wallisdown road anybody?, Im going to show you a way of forgetting the 45 minute journey cross conurbation, sitting in the queues at 10 M.P.H, checking the phone, and instead taking the best possible routes in the area by bike, hell you’ll even get fit for free, arrive awake and save heaps of time and money getting home.
The key factor of this route is the Bourne Valley – the stream that originates in Canford bad lands, and snakes down to the Sea through the Greenway in a perfect South easterly direction. It’s the lungs of our area, stuffed with SSSI’s that’s sites of specific scientific interest and I love it. I love it because there are some of my favourite plants here that only grow in the really wild places of the U.K. SSSIs stands for sites of specific scientific interest, and these places wont be getting built on anytime in the future. We are very lucky having so many green spaces preserved by the Council and developed into leisure spaces by the parks department like Bournemouth Velodrome at Slades Farm which this route passes close to. Directional perfection is what’s best about this route, along with parking exactly where you want to your journeys can be timed to the minute.
Beginning at the top of Canford Heath you’re in the areas Mountain bike playground, with trails and hills well established by years of riding, running and walking. Bridleways here lead onto a path known locally as the yellow brick road- which is a brick surface cycle path leading into Canford Heath Urban area underneath Canford Heath rd. Linked to Darbys lane north a and passing the Junior school route joins further 1970s tracks which exist alongside many of the major roads out of Poole like the Dorset Way. These are often less than a metre wide so passing other riders needs care, but they are better than nothing. We could be waiting many years to see a fully integrated cycle route system so I would advise you to check out these routes now instead.
Exiting the Dorset Way underpass turning left then climb Old Wareham road, an on road section- the only major on road Ive included in this Routes vs Queues post and after reaching Herbert Avenue and negotiating the little double roundabout with care, youre back onto quality. Turning left into Evering ave, go perfectly east until the end and carry on in same direction over the gravel spine above the Bourne Valley, you may see some cows here, and if your an adventurer find some seasonal wild plants. this section already has an entrance gate and gravelled surface, re-designation to an official cycle route would be my future vision. At the end drop left and the meet the end of Bloxworth road, a minor road travelling in the same direction to the end of Alder Hills. Here you meet Routes vs Queues 1 to continue into the centre of Bournemouth. A couple of back roads above Talbot Heath and through one of the only pieces of filtered permeability in the area under the railway arches at Dalling road lead to the start of the linked cycle path Bourne Valley Greenway at Coy Pond.
My strava link here starts at the University Campus, quickly joining Bourne Valley Greenway, many Poole localities and northern Bournemouth places link to this route- it really is the most pleasant way to make a trip into Central Bournemouth. Admittedly the surface is far from great tarmac- something I have been continually asking for improvement on through Bournemouth cycling forum and Council colleagues. Imagine this designated as cycle only, with quality surface, uplighting improvements, re-prioritised give ways at road crossings and youre seeing my idea of creating a commuter route which could take hundreds of queuing cars off Wallisdown road every day. A parallel pedestrian path exists all the way along, the barriers to perfection exist in the slow process of organisations like Councils, Im starting to sound like Russell Brand so back on topic. Roll down through the upper gardens, middle gardens to centre of Bournemouth and enjoy the freedom on two wheels, you’ve made it to town now. At the square which since September has been a ‘shared space’ allowing considerate cycling you can continue to another path parallel to the Lower Gardens the tourist centre. In just a moment you are at the Pier and seafront and time to link to the Yellow Route. A Green route in Green Space in our Centre parks by sea, I do hope you enjoy it, be glad to get feedback on these routes Ive been enjoying since 2008, so do add comments.
