Steady Pedals

After teasing with a photo of the train times, a rather belated and short update on what I was up to.

Last weekend was a chance to do a mini tour, to check out all the gear for touring and to see if I would still enjoy it ! Despite it being a Bank Holiday the weather at least during the day was amazing.

I’d planned to do roughly 40 miles a day, with 23kg on the bike and not much cycling on the bike over the last few months, that was more than enough. Day one was a relaxed day (in theory), ride up to town, meet my cycling buddy, tea and pastry and then train to Folkstone.

My ride up to town was uneventful, main roads most of the way and straight down a deserted Oxford Street !

It didn’t go quite to plan after that, with 3 minutes to go before the train left, I was getting on the train with both tickets and my friend was nowhere to be seen. He made it on literally at the last minute. So much for a relaxing start !

After a bit of trouble getting out of Folkstone, we had a lovely ride along the coast, including a stretch of the Napoleonic Military Canal.

Then it was onto Dungeness, to take in the delights of the Nuclear Power Station and the rather more photogenic steam railway.

A fish and chip supper and an uneventful nights camping followed. Uneventful apart from the Siberian wind that seems to be blowing in from the sea and threatening to collapse the tent. It was absolutely freezing too ! The next morning wasn’t much better, I’d forgotten what a pain setting up and taking down and repacking all the gear was.

A slightly later start than anticipated saw us set off on what was meant to be another relatively easy and scenic day, again along the coast through Rye and the Rye Harbour Nature reserve, which was stunning. Lunch stop in Hastings and quick trip to M+S to buy thick socks to keep my feet warm at night, then continue to Bexhill – on- Sea where we headed inland across the Pevensey Levels to our second days campsite on a farm near Polegate. My only concern was one rather large bump on the elevation profile. Turned out it was (in my eyes at least) a monster hill, with some very steep gradients. I had to admit defeat and walk parts of it. The reward though was a Pizza Express lunch ! So it wasn’t all bad.

The final day was going to be short, around 33 miles to Edenbridge, then back into London by train and a ride to Paddington and train back to Ealing. The first 10 miles was on an old railway track, which I thought would be easy, followed by 23 miles of up and downs as we criss crossed the downs. Turns out that this railway track has quite a gradient, it’s downhill all the way to the sea. Handy for coming from the North, but not so good heading the other way. It was a really hard day with relentless short, steep climbs, I managed to ride all of them this time, though only with lots of stops for a breather. total climbing for the day was around 800m

After a tea and cake stop at Edenbridge and a long wait for a train, we headed back to London, at London Bridge we went our separate ways. I had a scenic ride to Paddington, train to Ealing and then another short ride to home. I was really happy as I got to use my +60 Oystercard so no charge on the train !

A fun three days, logistically it all went well. Nothing forgotten, packing worked fine and I could still remember how to put the tent up. Physically I’m in completely different shape to the last time I toured, then I’d probably done a 1000 miles plus already that year, this year I’d be amazed if I done much more than 200, so it was hard work.

Still onwards and upwards…..