Thanet

Dover.  The end of NCN route 2 is also the start of NCN route 1, which broadly goes up the east of the country ending at the north of Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands.  I wasn't going that far, but I set off along route 1, up the big hill out of Dover, curling round the castle.

Dover Castle

I was on top of the Kentish world, but I had to go and spoil it.  There's a small place called St Margarets at Cliffe just round the corner from Dover, and I felt the need to explore it.  It went all the way back down to beach level.  But on the plus side, there was a kiosk serving toasties on the beach.

St Margarets at Cliffe

Surprisingly soon after the climb out of Cliffe, the road went down (another long traffic-free descent) to the seaside, the coastline turned north and became flat!  I soon came to Deal, which should not be dismissed lightly.  It's a big deal - it's big (and it's Deal, obvs), maybe as big as Folkestone or even Dover based on my one-dimensional ride through them.  I didn't  stop though as I was hoping to get a deal at Sandwich for tea.

Descent

Kingsdown 

Deal pier

Deal

Deal Castle

The ride to Sandwich was across country on an alleged "no cars" road but there were several cars.  When I got there I was nearly defeated by the fiendish one-way system in my quest for a tea stop, but a local showed me a secret route through the churchyard. I found a rather strange cafe with no sandwiches and only one type of cake, a very small morsel for £3.50, so I had porridge instead, which seemed to be almost free.  Sandwich is worth a look round, lots of picturesque old buildings, but take a ball of string in case you get lost.

Sandwich

Holy Ghost Alley

Leaving Sandwich 

I was now entering the Isle of Thanet, which is no longer an island, at the eastern extremity of Kent.  Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate are the main towns.  According to a local memorial stone, Thanet is where English history started, when the Vikings invaded in AD 453. 

 

I could have done a long stint after tea and gone round the end to a campsite along the top, but I wimped out of facing the headwind,  and stopped just short of Ramsgate, in a campsite on the site of an old stately home, Nethercourt Touring Park.  It currently has just one campervan and me, and a number of foxes which are apt to steal shoes.  Tent pitched in a sheltered spot, shoes still on  my feet, and evening meal in a coastal pub.  All good so far.

To Dover

Dungeness is classed as a desert, which may explain why the rain stopped as I arrived there.  The roads were suspiciously wet though.  The whole area seems to be a huge bank of shingle, on which houses, lighthouses and a nuclear power station have been built.  It has the air of a faraway, slightly unkempt place with old boats looking abandoned here and there on the acres of shingle, and gardens struggling to grow.  It is charming but cold and windswept.

Yesterday was the first day I've worn long trousers all day - in the whole trip since 2013!  Either I'm getting old, or it's very unseasonal weather.  Possibly both.

My tent was in a nice sheltered spot near a bee refuge.  I slept well to a faint sound of buzzing, but never saw any bees.  The next morning started cold, but the sun was out and it soon warmed up.  By the time I'd dried the dew off the tent and packed up it was very pleasant and there was even a decent tail wind as I zipped along the sea front.  Where were white cliffs in the distance across the sparkling blue sea, but I don't know if it was Dover.  You never hear of the white cliffs of Folkestone. 

Leaving New Romney

The main road turned off and I continued on a rough road which gradually became a dreadful rutted roller coaster of a track.  Annoyingly, there was  a smooth concrete pathway to my right, but it was separated by a three foot high concrete sea wall.  Eventually there was a gap and I got onto the concrete,  making good progress past Dymchurch, all but hidden behind the sea defences.  The land behind the sea wall was roughly at sea level, so they would not have been able to see the sea even from a first floor window.

Dymchurch 

A bit of road and then I entered Hythe along the Royal Military Canal.  Hythe has quite a bit of traffic but there's a nice town hidden away from  the main road.   Breakfast time after nearly ten miles.  Then it was back on the lovely sea wall, living the dream and zooming along to Sandgate, which looked quite nice as I zipped past.  I couldn't see any sand except a small rectangular patch about the size of a cricket ... crease? (you know; 22 yards long by a few yards wide), among the vast mass of pebbles.

Royal Military Canal,  Hythe

HG Wells' sea front house, Sandend

One of many Martello towers

All of a sudden, I was in Folkestone, which had a lovely relaxed feel to it around the harbour area, with lots to look at.

Folkestone

I found out that the white cliffs I saw earlier start at Folkestone, with a socking great hill out of town.  At the top there were some great views, and also the Battle of Britain memorial to all who gave so much, with France in view across the channel.  I could have spent a lot more time there. It does somehow manage to convey a bit of the human aspect of war.

Looking back over Folkestone 

The route into Dover followed NCN route 2, a beautiful rolling tarmac path along the aforesaid white cliffs, eventually a lovely long descent down a valley before rejoining the roads in Dover, always on separate cycle paths but noisy and very different to the earlier route.  I had a look round the docks and rode along the rather attractive seafront, which ferry passengers never get to see.  This is the end of NCN route 2 which started at Lands End I think, so a milestone for me.

Dover in sight!

The battle of Hastings - the sequel

Riding back from the pub was pure bliss, with the wind behind me.  For several years, I've been anticipating riding along the south coast, blown along by the prevailing south westerly wind, but it mostly didn't happen.

Despite retiring to my tent at 7pm, I didn't wake until 7am, although I did have to put more clothes on during the night to keep warm.   Amazingly, the wind had dropped a bit and the sun was out.  It was still cold but much more enjoyable than yesterday.

Leaving Norman's Bay

I rode eastwards towards Hastings with a big smile on my face.  The wind had gone round a bit to the side, the sun was shining, and it was flat.  Norman's Bay is in a rare un-built gap after Eastbourne on the almost continuous built-up south east coast.  It got its name from the Norman landing in 1066, when it was a much bigger bay before the sea level dropped, stranding some of the Cinque ports like Rye.

Soon I reached Bexhill-on-sea, which is clearly a place to live (or perhaps to retire to) with mostly houses along the sea front.  Then St Leonards which morphed into Hastings, where I had a delicious breakfast.  Hastings has an interesting old town to the east, with many seaside fishermen's shacks and an interesting-looking High Street.  It also has a cliff railway up the cliff  which I was about to climb.  The climb was mostly on a traffic-free road which was very steep, unsurfaced in parts, and went on for ever.

Bexhill, looking back towards Eastbourne 

Hastings

Eventually I was on the top, with enticing views over the flat plain to the north, but I wasn't going that way.  I descended to Petts Level which is cut off from the sea by a huge banked sea defence - I guess it's at risk of flooding.  Then at Winchelsea Beach I found a track along the coast through Rye Nature Reserve, a few pleasant traffic free miles leading to Rye Harbour.  Both Winchelsea beach and Rye Harbour have been moved since the sea level dropped.  Rye appeared across the fields, up on a hill, and I did a bit of a tour of its cobbled streets, and found an appropriate place for lunch.

Rye

The clouds had been gathering and it rained lightly in the afternoon.   I rode a nice cycle path to Camber Sands, which had similar sea defences and acres of sand.   I was near Dungeness and it seemed a good idea to ride a few miles to nearby Denge Marsh, but it wasn't.   There was nothing to see except an awful track at the end of the road.  The real Dungeness was a bit of a let down too.  The Romney Hythe & Dymchurch railway wasn't working, and its cafe was shut, so no tea stop.

Dungeness - new lighthouse

Then it was directly north into the wind, on a very exposed road.  I flaked out at New Romney, a small "Caravan Park" which has OK facilities, pitched up and went for a curry.

Series 12, Episode 1: East Sussex

Here is the cycling forecast for Sunday 10th May, issued by the Met Office at 0400 hours: West London: North westerly headwind, fresh to brisk; cloud cover: slight; visibility: good, traffic: scarce, temperature: tinglingly cold.

I rode into the rising sun to catch my 7 o'clock train from Clapham Junction, calling at everywhere on the way to Hove. My legs started to get re-accustomed to the weight of panniers and camping gear as every slight incline required changing to a lower gear.

I shivered on the platform and the train wasn't much warmer.  When I reached Hove, it was grey and breezy with a few spots of rain, but it soon brightened up a bit.  Brighton was quiet as I rolled along the prom.  There wasn't much to see on the nudist beach either, but that could be due to the cold.

Brighton

Royal British Legion conference 

who knows?

From Brighton there's a concrete cycleway along the undercliff for maybe six miles, to Peacehaven where you go back on the undulating cliff road.  Before that, I entered East Sussex at Saltdean.  There's a hill to get over to Newhaven,  on a very dodgy steep, potholed and pebbly road, but soon I was back at sea level by the port.  Whichever way you look at it, Newhaven is not the most picturesque port,, but I found a harbourside cafe for a good breakfast.

Undercliff walk/cycleway

Peacehaven

Dodgy promenade in Saltdean

Newhaven 

Newhaven fort

After Newhaven it was quite varied.  A rough pebbly track along the beach, only just rideable in parts with some walking, took me a few miles to Seaford, which nestles below the Seven Sisters, seven hills that produce seven white chalk cliffs where they encounter the sea.   The A road climbs about 100 metres in a mile to get past most of them, but it's a busy and narrow road, so I took a detour inland to avoid it.  It was about ten miles and treble the climbing, but I wasn't being followed by a queue of impatient drivers, and it was pretty, so it was much better.

Dodgy

Dodgy

Scenic detour

Lunch was at a very busy Birling Gap cafe, which was moved  back from the cliff edge recently after it got too close.  Birling Gap is between the biggest 'sister', Beachy Head, and the other six, so there was only one more hill to climb... Two and a half miles mostly into the wind, and very exposed, so it was hard going.  The descent on the other hand was lovely, snaking round hairpin bends down into Eastbourne. 

Birling Gap

 

Beachy Head

Everybody should enter Eastbourne that way. It gives a good impression, rolling down a wide road lined with big houses and hotels in well kept grounds. On the seaward side, a few parks and sometimes just the tree-covered cliff. The road is called Grand Drive, and it is. The grandness gives way eventually to ordinary hotels and houses but it's still nice.  

Eastbourne 

One problem emerged though :  the coast was now angled up so I was riding north west, right into the wind, still a strong and cold north westerly.   The further I pedalled, the slower I was going and I had to scale back my ambitions to reach Hastings, another 12 miles and another hill .   Instead I stopped in a campsite in Norman's Bay, a few miles past Eastbourne, and somewhere I've camped before.   Put the tent up, rushed to the pub but unfortunately they stopped serving food three quarters of an hour earlier (at 5pm).   I was gutted, but recovered when they said they could do a pudding for me.

They very kindly gave me the most
sheltered spot, which isn't very sheltered.

So I'll have an early night and hope I sleep well - it's forecast to be cold.   A good first day - modest distance but pretty hilly, and a 20mph headwind reducing to 15mph, all day.  I must have annoyed the weather gods.