Day 9 New Romney to Broadstairs - #And I would ride 500 miles#

There once was a father and son,
Who cycled the country for fun,
They decided they should,
Go as far as they could,
And now they're in Kent they're all done!

The basis behind picking North Foreland as the finishing point was because it makes the whole journey the furthest distance from south west to north east without going north of London. The result, however, of also following the south coast, meant that this final day was basically spent heading north. Of course, this meant that the weather would throw us a lovely Northerly breeze blowing pleasantly against us for most of the day. To add insult to injury, we also had our first spot of rain today. Having thought we were going to be lucky and avoid the wet stuff I suppose it was inevitable that it would arrive at some point! What made this worse was that the shower lasted precisely the amount of time it takes to retrieve a waterproof jacket from a bag and put it on. Then it stopped and the sun came straight back out and the pleasant weather resumed!

After a couple of days of reasonably flat riding, today was a return to the all too familiar hills. Both Folkestone and Dover have steep escape routes which made for some slow going but it did mean getting some more of those city views from the hills which are quite stunning if only because it means you are not in the city any more! (and I can't honestly say that either of the above were places I would want to spend a lot of time!)

Just outside of Folkestone we stumbled across the Battle of Britain Memorial which was a very pleasant surprise and gave me a chance to brush up on my early 1940's history! Today's photo is of the replica Spitfire on display.

A bit of pub trivia now: apparently, "The Red Lion" is the most common name for a pub in the UK. Personally, I don't ever remember seeing a pub with this name anywhere I've ever been. I was quite excited, therefore, when we stumbled across a "The Red Lion" just outside Dover. My question is this: How can it be such a popular name if I can cycle over 500 miles across the country and only find one?

It almost felt as if someone didn't want us to get to the end today. A combination of headwinds, big hills and poorly signed cycle paths made the end of the afternoon quite exhausting. Our accomodation for tonight is in Broadstairs which is a couple of miles short of North Foreland and we decided that we would just check into the bed and breakfast when we finally arrived and will actually head out to the end point of the ride first thing tomorrow for the obligatory ending photos! Despite this minor short coming, today was the last real day cycling and boy do I feel knackered! The sense of completion has not yet set in, but perhaps tomorrow's trip to the end and the realisation that I don't have to ride all day will give me that feeling that I have actually achieved my goal!