Last leg(s)

I slept quite well apart from being wracked by bouts of coughing every so often.  When I woke, I realised how much the Lem-Sip had helped me yesterday (it contains paracetamol).   I had a fluey headache and my wrists hurt from all the off-road.  But my legs seemed OK.

Last day today.  I imagine it will be a bit like the final stage of the Tour de France, where the result is hardly in doubt, and the exhausted riders sip champagne while gently riding into Paris - except, well, too many differences to list.

On paper, this week's ride looked fairly easy, with just a few noticeable hills.  It was anything but.  At Faversham,  when I'd really struggled against the wind to ride an unimpressive distance round Thanet and up the estuary, it occurred to me that I could easily get a train home and come back in better weather.  About that time, I got an email from my hero and long-time cycling friend, Mark G.  He said, more or less, I've looked at the map and I can see you're going to finish it.  Congratulations.

I was puzzled.  It seemed a bit premature.   I couldn't see that I was going to finish it.  But Mark's faith, and all of your support, dear readers, has kept me going on this last stage.  Also the thought of having to tell you about giving up.

There's a children's cartoon film, The Little Engine That Could, which tells the story of a little steam engine which has to pull a heavy train across the mountains in a terrible storm, and I feel a bit like that little engine.  I can do it!

Anyway, back to the job in hand.  Which started with breakfast.  No champagne, but a Wetherspoons Small Breakfast for £2.99, with unlimited coffee, £1.33.   And porridge.

I like Gravesend.  In some ways it's the outer border of London.  Back in the day, ships had to moor at Gravesend while they cleared customs, picked up a pilot and waited for the tide and a berth in the London docks.   I've heard it said that the name is because it marks the end of the graves from the Black Death in London in the 1500s.  But it's time to up anchors and sail(?) upriver.

NCN 1 goes inland to Bluewater here but I stuck more closely to the coast.  It was interesting because it was so varied.  Lots of old industrial buildings, and several smart new housing developments - so new that although my route went through them, they were still building them.   A few diversions were needed.  And then there were the cliffs.  Who knew about the white cliffs of Gravesend?  They're about three storeys high, and my route went up and down them willy-nilly.

In the shape of a giant toilet roll

There were little oases of quaint old villages, like Greenhithe, and there was Ebbsfleet, on the Eurostar as a redevelopment initiative and subsequently dumped by Eurostar.

Greenhithe

I crested a small hill and was surprised to see the towers of the City in the distance.  And the Dartford crossing (QE2 bridge) quite near.  Dartford was only three miles.  It was a special moment - I still remember riding under the Dartford crossing on my first day in 2013.  I passed near Dartford Station, and then headed off towards Erith.  There are two routes, the horrid main road (with cycleway) or along Crayford Creek on a rough track.  I chose the latter, which was lovely - back out in the countryside again  for several miles, but required careful concentration. 

Crayford Creek 

I was pleased to get to Erith, where there's a Morrisons, but not so pleased to find that their cafe had closed.  There wasn't a good alternative, so I carried on up the Thames, for quite a long way as it turned out.

For several miles the river is lined by warehouses, either importing things that London needs, like flour, paper, gravel, sand and so on, or just for retail distribution- Lidl, Sainsbury, Tesco and Amazon had mega warehouses, well connected for the M25.  Then there's the Crossness waste & sewage treatment centre, a vast incinerator and the old Victorian sewage pumping station.  The river is protected by levees or flood walls, so I was sometimes raised up with great views and sometimes behind a concrete wall.  There was a fresh headwind - still - but I was able to make OK progress.

Erith

Crossness

London in the distance 

The surroundings gradually became more dominated by fairly new housing as I neared Greenwich.  It was not until Woolwich Arsenal when I found a lovely cafe for 11s which turned into lunch.  By now the City was often in sight in different places as the river looped around.  From Woolwich I passed familiar sights around Greenwich and less familiar places in Rotherhithe, by sticking more closely to the river bank than usual.   Here I found a little farm with cafe right on the river bank - a beautiful local place to sit and rest.

Woolwich Arsenal 

? Near the Millenium Dome

Old and new

Farm cafe by the river

At last, Tower Bridge, my official start and end point, was coming close.   I went down to the riverbank for an obligatory finisher's photo, and I was delighted to see that they had raised the bridge in my honour!   A sailing ship took advantage of my timing to go under the bridge too.   That meant there was a queue to get across the bridge, but cyclists are lucky and I managed to skip most of the queue.   My trip around the coast is complete!

Getting home wasn't so much fun.  There was a far right Christian demonstration in parliament square (more far right than Christian from what I saw).   Lots of people.   The police said I could go through, which took some time, but the police at the other end said I couldn't exit along the embankment, so I had to push my way back and reroute across Westminster bridge.   Then at Battersea, I had a sinking feeling and my front tyre was, very unreasonably, flat.   And finally at Twickenham I ran into a flood of rugby crowds just yards from home when my energy was at a very low ebb after pushing against the wind all day.

Demonstration

Glad to be home.   Not so glad that the whole adventure is over.  I will have to think of another excuse to go and explore new places.

I'll write a bit more when I've unpacked and had chance to reflect.   And I'll post some maps and statistics, if you're interested, in the next few days.