Cycle
route 1 runs from the Shetland Isles down through Scotland, through
England to Dover. At some point we have the crazy notion of riding all
of it but for now we are content to ride it in smaller chunks. We did
the London to Dover section in two chunks as it is 113 miles long. The
route does not run directly it kind of meanders along the Thames and
through the Kent countryside. The first leg of the ride was London to
Whitstable, a more manageable 80 miles
We
set off from home very early at 5.00am as we had to do a little bit of
work in London first but with that out the way, we were ready for our
departure point in Denmark Hill SE5 for a little after 10.00am.
Now
the easy route to Whitstable would be just to burn out of town on the
main roads using the bus and cycle lanes across to Blackheath and then
weave our way through the Kent countryside clocking up 55 miles. Easy?
Not for us, we had been studying the map and wanted something more
challenging, we figured we could ride a route along the Thames using
cycle paths, picking up the National Cycle Route 1 and follow it down
the Thames Estuary to Whitstable. The distance is a lot further -
pushing eighty (80) miles and much of it would be off road using routes
we had never ridden, what could possibly go wrong? Well read on to find
out...
Here
we are getting ready to depart Denmark Hill, London SE5. We were not
sure what the best bike for the terrain would be, so we took a road bike
and a mountain bike as a test, I rode the roadbike, my friend Gordon
rode the mountain bike - one of us made the wrong choice as you will
find out... Some last minute checks of the route and we were off into
the badlands of Sarf London innit.
A
couple of short cuts through some alleys and into some dodgy looking
estates saw us flying through Peckam Rye and across a couple of little
parks. London is full of these little green oasis, with characteristic
black railings and wooden benches, most of them have a cycle path
cutting right across them which breaks up the urban sprawl and concrete.
Typical
narrow London streets bought us into a busy street market, piled with
all kinds of junk, from old chairs to street signs and a great reggae
soundtrack to ride to, we weaved our way carefully through, the bullet
proof locals hardly giving us a glance.
From
here it was past some "under the arches" type enterprises, complete
with fierce dog on a chain and over a rickety bridge onto some
wasteground with Millwall football club's infamous "Den" dominating the
view. I should have got a photograph as it is quite impressive but my
riding partner was a lifelong Arsenal fan and I didn't want to offend
him by photographing his rivals from over he water. In hindsight I
should have taken the shot, but hey ho, another time.
Within
no time we found ourselves on the river, where the atmosphere changes
completely, the light is different, the breeze picks up and the air is
(mostly) fresher, people are strolling and the river itself is busy with
barges and water taxis scurrying and chugging about their business.
I
shot this with a camera phone and on distance shots it is a bit grainy,
but you can make out central London and the City in the distance with
Norman Foster's "Gherkin" characteristic outline in the centre as well
as some of the redevelopment that has changed London's skyline
significantly over recent years. After our pause for a photo opportunity
it was onwards towards Greenwich and its famous observatory,
reminiscent of school trips from years gone by. Sure enough as we weaved
our way through parties of schoolchildren it was apparent that not much
has changed and it is still a rite of passage that local kids still
make.
With
both of us swivelling around like a bunch of tourists seeing London for
the first time the inevitable happened - I rode clean into the side of
Gordon, with me landing in a heap with one foot still in the cleats and a
knee that hit the ground with a thud. A quick dust off and we rode on
with our dignity just about intact, flipping hurt though...
We
were riding parallel with London Docklands on the Isle of dogs with its
gleaming skyscrapers, a far cry from how it looked 20 years ago. I
remember working in the area when the first tower was being built on
Canary Wharf - 1 Canada Square and watching it go up at the rate of a
floor a week, topping out at 800ft it was by far the tallest building in
London and visible for miles around, it is now joined by towers with
signs for Barclays, Citibank, HSBC and others, who would have though
that twenty years ago these bright young city types and money men would
be working on the Isle of Dogs and all its historic grittiness? I still
think it looks great though.
The
picture above shows the collection of buildings in Docklands slowly
emerging from the foreground as we ride parallel from the opposite bank,
to reveal themselves in their reflective splendor in the picture below
Our
next landmark was the o2 arena or Millenium Dome as most people know
it. The usual view of the o2 is for me from the Blackwall Approach,
heading into London, so it was amazing to ride right up to it and see it
from a completley different angle. We were seeing familiar sights from a
completely different perspective, crossing London by bike you see and
feel much more and cover ground much quicker than you ever could by car,
hey we were enjoying this!
There
were a few diversions in place which took us around the peninsula in a
slightly disjointed way and we started to make some good progress on the
deserted cycle paths that lead you further up the estuary, we weaved
through the queue for the Woolwich Ferry and the smell of burgers from
the greasy spoon van in the carpark that has been there as long as I can
remember on on into Woolwich Arsenal, to the most surprising view of a
very smart new development of apartments and some really interesting
statues by the artist Peter Burke. I am ashamed to say that we felt the
need to customise the artwork by including our bikes into the sculpture.
Time
to get the hammer down and it was head down and speed towards Erith and
its fragrant industrial odour of fertilizer, plastic, aggregates and
errr sewage, it felt more isolated here compared to the bustle of the
city and the marshland opened up before us to reveal the Queen Elizabeth
II bridge at Dartford.
This
is another memory for me as I worked in Essex for a while when this was
being built and watched it grow day by day, week by week, again I still
think it is a good looking structure, not up there with the Norman
Foster bridge over Millau in France, but sad as it may sound it is a
nice looking bridge (note to self: bridge spotting is not a healthy
hobby)
Dartford,
that jewel of a gateway to North Kent was the location for our
glamorous lunch stop on a trading estate on the outskirts, time to fuel
up and get on, just time to notice that my shoes match my bike - nice.
With
carbs, protein and fluid on board it was time to push on, we still had
40 plus miles to go and needed to get on. It was about now that we
realised that this was turning into a bit of an epic ride and we would
have to start eating up the miles if we had any chance of making
Whitstable on time.
The terrain changed...
From
nice smooth tarmac and concrete to gravel path, I was on a twitchy
lightweight road bike, mile after mile of bumpy pot holed gravel were
beginning to take its toll on me physically, there was no give in the
frame or forks and I was feeling every bump and pothole as the shocks
shuddered through the frame - this bit was not fun and I was getting my
old problem of cramp in my left shoulder, that I knew would only get
worse.
We
pushed on and ticked off Dartford, Gravesend and Hoo (love that name)
and got used to riding along the Medway rather than Thames. Then. We hit
real problems. real big problems.
Lottery
money or some Millenium fund or other had stumped up money for a new
cycle path, so a very straight path had been laid using type 1
aggregate. Type 1 is great big lumps of hard white stone that kind of
settles down over time to become a fairly smooth pathway that drains
nicely. Trouble is the council looked like they had laid it yesterday
and we had the job of compacting it for them.
This
is the point that we discovered that a road bike with its fragile and
skinny tyres was the wrong choice, 100 metres in the rear tyre was
completely flat. Not that kind of spongy let's try some more air flat.
this was ride on the rim flat.
Off with the wheel, fix the puncture, no problem. No problem until we counted the seven snake bite punctures...
I banged in a new tube, Gordon got patching on the old tube, off we go.
100 meters - back on the rim again, completely trashed tube.
No
road nearby, no more spare tubes, in the middle of nowhere and 7 miles
from the nearest bike shop in Rochester, we were in the sh*t and we knew
it.
The
plan was for me to start walking whilst Gordon went ahead to the bike
shop and rode back with some new tubes, so that is what we did. The type
1 path from hell lasted another mile and gave way to tarmac. Gordon had
had a brain wave...
Why
not see if we could stuff and stretch one of his spare mountain bike
tubes into my super skinny race tyres? With little other options we gave
it a try. Now if anyone reading this knows Gordon at this point it is
best to just stand back and let him do his thing as special tools appear
from bags and pockets and he becomes a blur of activity. Its best to
shut up too at this point as he concentrates, otherwise he will tell you
off, especially if your bike falls on him, as mind did - sorry Gordon.
Well we found out that you can stuff a mountain bike tube into a road bike tyre - just - and it will stay inflated.
So
onwards once more with me imagining a blow out any second, as the miles
flew by and with confidence growing it was over the Medway bridge and a
quick stop at the cycle store in Rochester High Street for a pair of
spare tubes before they shut.
We
ticked off Chatham, Gillingham and off into another country park to the
well signposted Rainham and then off into the countryside for our next
target - Sittingbourne. A bit of a signage problem found us way out the
way at the Sheppey bridge so it was a bit of a detour into the
delightful town of Sittingbourne with its friendly young people that
gave us such a warm welcome of cold hard stares expletives and a police
drug bust (I kid you not) that only East Kent can do so well.
At
this stage it was starting to get dark as we pushing towards 7 o'clock
and without lights it was getting dangerous so we called in the Duffbus
to come and get us 20 miles short of our destination. We had racked up
67 hard miles and learnt a lot about the route and the preparation we
need for our next attempt before the event at the end of May.
Damn good ride and a very interesting one, thoroughly recommended - but take the right bike!
Update...
I have since completed this route twice, once on a singlespeed (ouch)
and last time on a geared mountain bike. The geared mountain bike was
best! It was just over eighty miles and a great day's ride. If I pick
things up from the account above where we bailed out at Sittingbourne
the town after Sittingbourne is Faversham and the track becomes more of a
shale kind of track that is nicely traffic free. From Faversham it is
on through the Graveney marshes and Whitstable is visible in the
distance with the sea on the left. It is strange riding towards such a
familiar landmark having started riding nearly eighty miles away, having
made it across Whitstable it was down to the beach for a well earned
beer and barbecue, perfect.
Now for the second leg... Whitstable to Dover
As
I live near Whitstable in Kent it was decided that a group of us would
ride the cycle route 1 to Dover and then loop back making for a ride of
75 miles. Leaving Whitstable you ride along a disused railway line that
has been converted into a cycle path. The route is called the Crab and
Winkle as reference to the trains that used to run from Whitstable
bringing seafood to the people of Canterbury. The route is a shale type
cycle path and is traffic free. There are a couple of road crossings but
these are across very quiet roads. You enter Canterbury at the Kent
University campus and thee route passes through the campus. The city of
Canterbury sits in a natural bowl, so there is a steep descent into the
city followed by a steep ascent back out. Canterbury has a beautiful
cathedral and medieval street network. It also has a horrible ring road,
but cyclists are provided for with a handy dedicated lane/ path that
cuts most of the traffic out.
Heading out of Canterbury you pass through the town of Fordwich, which
apparently is England's smallest town and was once navigable by sea.
There is a very steep climb up a very narrow lane that heads you out
towards Stodmarsh and winds you through quiet Kentish lanes and
eventually onto the quaint town of Sandwich. The route crosses a toll
road (free to cyclists) and through the golf course, next to the sea. It
is quite exposed here and you can expect a fairly strong headwind to
work against you. Departing Sandwich you will arrive at the town of
Deal, which has some nice old regency type buildings and a rather ugly
pier. Cycle route 1 then heads out through Walmer with its famous castle
and onwards towards the White Cliffs of Dover.
- Approaching Dover with the castle in the centre of the picture and the English Channel to the left
This part is really quite pleasant and traffic free with a gentle climb
onwards to Dover with spectacular views of the lighthouse and castle.
You enter Dover through a series of gates owned by the National Trust
with fantastic views of the docks and boats as they come and go between
Dover and Calais. The only real disappointment is the final descent down
to the docks which has a large number of steps which means carrying
your bikes. Once down at the bottom the cycle route leaves into the town
of Dover along the seafront.
- Overlooking the docks at Dover with ferries shuttling to and fro
The return loop to Whitstable was a made up kind of Garmin assisted
route through the Kentish lanes. All in all a great ride, clocking up
another 70 miles in total for the round trip, certainly one to repeat.
