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!

Day 8 Eastbourne to New Romney - Broke Bike Mountain

Before setting off this morning we checked the the altitude profile for the day. Other than a 550ft climb out of Hastings, the rest of the day had inclinations and falls of less than 30ft! To say that this was a hilly and stressful day would be...well...about as wrong as you could get.

The day started early with a quick trip to the 1960's as we encountered a large group of scooter riders sporting fluffy tails. Then followed a cruise through Bexhill (stopping briefly to watch a fleet of boats failing to move due to the complete lack of wind) and Hastings before the mammoth climb for the day. My body is clearly now feeling the fatigue and it was actually a very tough climb despite not being the worst we have encountered as of late. But of course, a 550ft climb means a 550ft drop the other side!

I've often sat and wondered what would happen if I hit a deep, angular pothole whilst screaming downhill at 30mph on a fully laden bike. Well...today I found out! It turns out that the bike holds up pretty well, no major damage done and in fact, I think that the gears actually work better now than they did before! However, what did take a battering, oddly, was the rear light. Somehow, the impact ripped the light casing apart and scattered across the road. Due to the speed I was going and the fact I was on a 12% downhill decline, it took some distance to stop which meant a depressing walk back up the hill to recover said casing and search for two AA batteries which were cunningly camouflaged against the tarmac. A quick roadside repair and the light is now as good as new apart from a crack which will possibly compromise it's resistance to rain in future!

Just after Fairlight Cove we came across possibly one of the few places in the country where you can capture sea, beach, road and field all in one photograph! As such, I have featured this incredible find in today's picture.

Today was intended to be little more than 40 miles in length because Dad's annorak came out when he realised that we would be going past the Romney, Hyth and Dymchurch railway. With a diversion pre-planned, we headed off to the bottom end of the line at Dungeoness. Here can be found a pub, some unusual dwellings (it would be wrong to call them houses), the railway station, a lighthouse...and a nuclear power station! Not the most inspiring place I've ever visited.

Most evenings over the last week have involved a pub, some beer and some pub grub. Today posed a problem. The only pub in walking distance doesn't do food! With desperation looming over us, we resorted to the recommendation of our host to try the local Greek restaurant. If you struggle to imagine what a Greek-Cockney sounds like, then this is a must visit establishment! Regardless of this interesting quirk, the meal was incredibly good and washed down well with a much loved danish lager!

Day 7 Bognor Regis to Eastbourne - Dawn of the Dead

As we head gradually east, I can't help noticing a significant increase in the number of Funeral Directors in prominent locations. It's clear that they must do a lot of business round these parts, there was a chain of stores for one particular company who obviously had their heads screwed on when placing a stone mason's in the shop next door!
Today's ride picked up where yesterday's left off. Generally the going this morning was fairly easy. Living in Poole, you begin to take for granted the things on offer there which include sandy beaches (rather than pebbles) and a 10 mile long promanade along which you can cycle for 10 months of the year. However, it turns out that there doesn't appear to be any prom longer or more convenient along the whole coast and there are some remarkably cycle-unfriendly paths restricting cycle usage to "never".

This afternoon, we were back to the usual hills, etc. As we ventured up to the top of Beachy Head. Many people use this particular cliff (one of the Seven Sisters) to take 160 metre dives into rock beds. Perhaps this explains the funeral directors. With this in mind, it seemed only right to punish Dad for navigational errors earlier in the week and so I made him walk the proverbial plank. The result is pictured today. A steady downhill coast into Eastbourne finished the day nicely.

Day 6 Wroxhall to Bognor Regis - Boarding the Oscillator

Today's first objective was to get off the island! I have some painful memories of the second half of the island cycle route from the Randonee in May, however, thankfully, previous experiences from earlier this week meant that the remaining hills were just not as tough as my memory served. One short ferry trip later and we were in my birth city of Portsmouth. What followed was an unavoidable but surprisingly well navigated city ride (finally something to compliment Dad with!). Along with the route through Havant, Portsmouth provided some hairy "big road" moments which included roundabouts and large complex junctions which have clearly been designed to irritate cyclists (or perhaps we're not supposed to use them) and some of the most bizarre cycle path marking I've ever seen! Anyhoo, today's ride was, I'm afraid, largely without incident, so I'm resorting to a picture of Chichester Cathedral in the hope that it will draw you away from a rather uninteresting write-up!

Day 5 Poole to Wroxhall - A Meeting of Minds

"George used to do something in the garden"...Today was an early start for me and I had to work for my breakfast as it was being prepared 10 miles away! In order to catch up with Dad, I set off from home just after 07:00 so I could arrive in Bournemouth in time for our usual 08:00 breakfast. Thankfully, the planned route for the day was only 48 miles and as I had already completed over a fifth of this distance before breakfast, we had a gentle day ahead of us! On the first stretch down to Lymington to catch the Isle of Wight ferry we had our first collision. My acute sense of body movement meant that I pulled out on to a main road as Dad did...just as he stopped having noticed an approaching car. You could call it a meeting of minds, but in reality, it was just proof that crash helmets work very well in a low impact headbutt situation! No serious injuries were sustained (although I did, today, pick up a couple of additions to my awesome collection of cool looking pedal inflicted scars on my right leg). Today's stunning weather meant that the ferry crossing over to Yarmouth was beautifully calm and made for some good photo opportunities. As we were making good time, arriving on the Island before 12 with only 23 miles to do, we decided to grab an uncharacteristic pub lunch and added a few miles on by heading over to the Needles which are featured in today's photo. To finish off the day, we followed the Randonee route around the south of the island which contains a couple of good climbs to make us feel like we've put the effort in today! ...Quite who George was and what he did in the garden, we will never know!

Day 4 Bridport to Poole - There's no place like home!

Today was the gentle respite that I hoped yesterday would be! A few tough climbs out of Bridport and Abbotsbury gave a kick start to the morning, but things levelled out a bit later on in the day. The route around Abbotsbury and Weymouth was actually part of a training ride we did a few weeks ago and in the true adage of "better the you know" it was certainly easier going knowing what to expect. Away from Weymouth, we ventured again into the unknown which came also with our first major navigation error. I say "our" but Dad's the one with the map so really it was his fault! We ended up taking a main A-road route which had been purposely avoided in the planning! This actually added a small distance on to the day as we found an alternative back road to get us back on the planned route. The next section took us towards Wareham and thanks to the River Frome's flood plain, this was a pleasantly flat section which lasted about 10 miles without sight of anything more than a mild bump in the road! Once in Wareham, I was back on home turf as we followed one of my favourite paths around Poole harbour via Corfe Castle and Studland. We arrived at the Sandbanks chain ferry with perfect timing just as it finished loading up and took a quick breather before rolling off on the Sandbanks side and continuing on. This was where Dad and I seperated. My route took me back around to Poole Quay and a refreshing night staying at home, making my total distance for the day around 65 miles. Dad, on the other hand had a little further to go to stay with my Grandmother on the Christchurch side of Bournemouth. For now I am not envious of the extra 10 miles or so he had to do today, but I pay for this tomorrow morning as I have an early start to catch up with him by 8.00 in the morning! All in all, this was the best day so far and my aching limbs are definately not so bad tonight. Perhaps that means I'm finally getting into the swing of things!

Day 3 Moretonhampstead to Bridport - Size does matter

Cunningly, we had planned today as a relatively gentle wind down from yesterday's uphill grind over the Moor. Unfortunately, today's route was riddled with long uphill grinds so actually offered little, if any, relief. Today we encountered our first "pusher" which is pictured today. This was the exit route from the village of Branscombe. You know you are fighting a losing battle when your down to 2.5mph and getting over-taken by worms! Pushing the bikes up the hill was marginely quicker although no less exhausting. The exit from Branscombe was, however, made more exiting by watching motorists negotiating oncoming traffic on this steep, single track road. Many an accident was narrowly averted and I'm sure that this must be a hotspot for low speed crunches! The last couple of days have taught me to fear the exciting blasts down hills because it just means you have to go back up the other side! This was particularly true with Sidmouth where we stopped for lunch. The way in was exhilaratingly fast (and painful on the braking fingers!), but inevitably this meant a long labourious climb back out! A little further along the coast in Seaton, we met a helpful local cyclist who aided our departure from the town by suggesting a more gentle route back out. This took the form of a slight diversion from our planned route and whilst still presented itself as a steep hill, it looked a damn sight better than what we would've done! Today's highlight was the descent into Lyme Regis which offers a stunning view of the Dorset coast line all along Chesil Beach as far as Weymouth and Portland. This must be some of the most spectacular coast in the country! This view made the hard work from the rest of the day seem worth the effort! Tonight's arrival at the B&B in Bridport was a very welcome relief and I'm sure I will sleep very well tonight! Tomorrow's ride brings me back on home turf so I have a good idea of what to expect. Topped off with an overnight stay at home, I'm hoping that this will be a mid-journey respite!