High spots in the South of England

High spots, I am not talking about chemical induced nirvana, although one of my good riding friends seems to know an awful lot about that subject from his murky past. No, I am talking about the highest points on the landscape that we reside in, just how tall are they and where they are.

Considering that we call ourselves mountain bikers I thought we ought to find out...

A quick bit of online research reveals that the highest point in the South East is Leith Hill in Surrey Hills at 295m. Now it is good to know that many of us have ridden up and down this point a few times which kind of, lamely, enables us to call ourselves mountain bikers.

By comparison I think that the highest point within comfortable riding distance of us is the hills above Wye Kent on the North Downs which is 137m, please feel free to correct me if you know otherwise.

Those of us that have done the Hell of the Ashdown with the hills - Star, Toys and Ide all have elevations under 240m.
I decided to look further afield to see where larger hills lay, that if hills do lay as such, maybe they lurk or loom? Looking at the topography of the UK we have to travel quite a way to find anything significantly bigger than Leith Hill, Gloucestershire to be precise with Cleeve Hill at 330m.

Going all continental I looked over the channel to France to see if there were any significant lumps to go and climb nearer to home, but again the terrain still stays stubbornly below 300 mtrs until you reach Swiss Normandy (345mtrs) going further afield you need to get to the Bois de Baissey in Champagne Ardennes at 523 mtrs, which is still a fair old trek across France.


Obviously we have the well known mountain ranges to choose from for really big climbs but the purpose of this blog entry was to see what we could find nearby that is more challenging than Leith Hill, it appears unfortunately that the answer is there is not much over 300 metres, although 300 metres can still be a lot of fun of course. So to summarise - if we want more mountains, we need to move :)
  

Jesus came to visit over the Christmas holidays

My long lost brother dropped in over Christmas for a flying visit, you can actually see his halo in the background ;)

Mountain Mayhem 2013 reposting for Bazza ( I think)

New Year, New Date, New Location: Wiggle Mountain Mayhem Moves into a New Era!

Happy New Year!


Wiggle and Pacific Edge Events Limited are proud to announce (finally... yes, we know...) that there is a new date for your diaries for Wiggle Mountain Mayhem this year:


15th & 16th June 2013


Camping will be available from Friday 14th June 2013.


After many happy (and often muddy) years at Eastnor, we all felt that it was time for a change. Since the end of Mayhem last year we have searched the length and breadth of the UK tirelessly to find the perfect venue. That is no easy task. We want only the best for Wiggle Mountain Mayhem riders. Now in it's 16th year, we constantly strive to improve Mayhem for everyone. That is why we are really excited about our new venue. The only snag is we are sworn to secrecy about the exact location for a little while longer... BUT there are a few little nuggets we can tell you at this stage:


• it is completely virgin mountain bike territory - a private location never before used for cycling in any way


• the only way you will ever get to ride a mountain bike here is by entering Wiggle Mountain Mayhem


• it is less 40 miles from Eastnor


• our course designers are really excited to be able to bring you some fantastic mountain biking with well made forest tracks plus gravely rock structure and high organic content making the soil drain well.


Entries will go on live to download at midnight on Thursday 28th February 2013. First come, first served at Pat's house. Online entries will go live at midday on Friday 1st March 2013.


Keep checking out the website for more details.


Don't forget to like our Facebook page for up-to-the-minute updates, competitions and more.


We're so excited! We know it's been a while coming, but we're sure it's worth the wait.


Here's looking forward to a whole new era of Wiggle Mountain Mayhem. Make sure you're with us!


The Wiggle Mountain Mayhem Team"

Thursday 22nd night ride

tiGor ready to ride

Okay all you weekend warriors, it seems to the selected few hard types from the Bubble that you big girls from the Bay are scared of the dark.

I know that statement may seem a bit harsh but that is the only reason we can see as to your absence on the Wednesday night rides.

We know it isn't because you are a bunch of lard arsed sofa surfers because we are and we still get out.


To shake it up a bit the ride is going to be Thursday this week.

I worked 15 hours on Monday and 16 hours today having driven over 700 miles already this week. tomorrow I am in Bournemouth and Dorchester so again a hard day. I am not saying this to brag but to try and give you some motivation that if I am sitting here trying to motivate you and organise a ride after leaving home at 4 this morning the least you can do is to post to say you are a lazy git and can't be bothered.

We all lead busy lives but I promise that if you make the effort to get out you we be saying that you were glad you did and will feel good about yourself.

So go on you lovely boys and treat yourself to a mid week ride, we do understand if you can't make it because you're scared of the dark but if we can establish that you don't fancy it the Whitstable boys are happy to do their own thing and continue to ride in the shadows.

Really don't worry if the mid week thang isn't for you but don't moan as the fat oyster ducklings turn into silky skilled swans with lightening reactions on the Sunday spin outs.

We have devised a one hour circuit from Gypo Cnr which we can do either direction so we can drop the Bay boys a little nearer to home if this helps and I can guarantee it is a fairly leisurely hour.

So if you're mouse enough give it a go, we can even repair punctures if it helps but we don't wash your bike for you.

CarniGor

My wife's blackbury said...........overcast!

My friend said that he was on stand by on Sat. so could not ride, but should be out on Sunday, and anyway the weather was going to be bad on Sat. On Friday night my wife's blackbury said that Sat. was going to be cloudy and overcast did not say anything about rain.

So on sat. at a little after nine I set off for Hythe on my bike in light drizzle saying to myself that a bit of rain never used to stop the club runs with John Clarey and that, and I particularly wanted to see the autumn colours in the Kent countryside before it was too late. By the time I was through Canterbury and around Bridge area I might as well have waded through a river, I could squeeze my hand inside my gloves and it would rinse the water out nicely.

I thought shall I turn round and go home? and what was the point of that if you were on a march to reach Pevensey Bay to face the Normans, you can't turn round cos its raining, so I pressed on. I remembered the film I had seen yesterday with Judy Dench, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy called 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Exotic_Marigold_Hotel . It was part of the Folkstone Book Festival and after the film the author of the original book Deborah Moggach gave a chat with questions from the audience and that! To cut to the chase it is about outsourcing old people from the UK to a  hotel in India for their retirement as it is cheaper. The portrayal of the characters as they face the challenges adapting to massive change at a senior stage in life is triffic. And I was contemplating throwing the towel in because I was getting wet, 'you pansey'.....as I was talking to myself like this 3 guys smashed past me going out of Barham. After my pep talk to myself I had to chase them down and hang on, which made my legs ache. Approaching Elham I was sagging bad and every little rise they pulled away a few lengths, then as it levels out over the top I would just be able to claw back on again. This was getting harder to sustain and then suddenly they turned left ......I got away with it I did not blow,.... some old fat bloke with a rack on his bike chewing the stem. I was on impulse power for several miles in recovery.

I was too cold, too wet to get my phone out and take any picture on this ride, just too much of a pain. But the colour of the leaves was amazing, as the yellowy oranges did not have to compete with bright blue skys or sunlight, they just contrasted with dark wet shadows of the trees the sky was grey and the power of the yellow was so strong......gold anemic in comparison. I went past a school I did a job in years ago as I knew it was in the area near Saltwood. I had hoped to look at Saltwood Castle when I set off on my ride, but I could not see it, or signs to it and I was so wet and numb I didn't feel like looking too hard, ie stopping asking someone and turning around.....to uncomfortable  ready for a tea in the cafe next door to the Light Railway Station. 2 people in the cafe.

The guy in the cafe poured me a tea from a big pot, then got a strainer, put it over a second mug and poured the first mug into the second!........I said can you tell me my fortune from dregs at the bottom of the first cup? He laughed, sadly he was unable to, he said 'those skills are lost and tea is more like dust these days as it infuses quicker than leaves......and tea bags you got no hope. We chatted he came over to the UK in 1957 from Italy and has run the cafe since 1962 (the year I was born). I even found a radiator to put my hat and gloves on. I also had the largest slice of Swiss roll I think I have ever seen in a cafe....not as big as one you might cut for yourself when no one is looking! Even though he strained it, I still had tea dust dregs at the bottom of my mug and I thought I would read my own fortune.....I turned the mug round a few times and all that came to me was that the shape looked a little like some small figures in the lower border of the Bayeux Tapestry. I looked harder trying to see what they might be doing.....it looks like someone is falling.......falling.....what off their bike? I've got to ride back yet.... with this prophesy. My hat and gloves were still soaking wet, but slightly warm which gave a little comfort. Putting wet cold clothes on, not so good.

The ride out of Hythe....never easy and when I reached the top somewhere called Farthing Common I saw 3 phesants running across a field, two french hens and a partridge in a pear tree. There was not much wind, but what there was was behind me, and I was moving along nicely along that really straight B0268 road which must be Roman. Then suddenly I saw an animal laying dead on the grass just under the hedgerow. I was riding along thinking that was the biggest dead animal I have ever seen. As I went past I only saw it out of the corner of my eye and could not identify it......definatley bigger than a badger........couldn't have been dog could it? A pony, a horse surely no, and I had to turn around and go back and see. There was a smell and it had been there a while, bloated with stuff oozing out of various holes, but definatly a deer.

I carried on squeezing water from my gloves, I think every yard of this ride it has been raining but I'm on the big ring now pressing hard moving fast. Knackered I started drifting off again, I started wondering to myself, if I do get the artist in residence position at the power station what would I do? Power Station Didcot A is being closed down and they want to mark this in some way! What better way than to ask an artist to make a lasting statement with social comment on athe thorney issue of power generation......I'm thinking of people I might like to work with me on this project, particularly a story teller I have in mind. Then I remember the budget was fairly low and having to pay other people wages from it as well, was that really the best way to approach it....but I cant help the ideas I have, and what I would like to do for it. So as usuall if I was offered the job I would just have to suck it up. Maybe I wont be too miffed if I don't get it.

What are you working on at the moment? Great to able to say, 'I am artist in residence at DidcotA (one of the the dirty30'.)

So Canterbury and a bit of freestyle traffic dodge at Windcheep...I duck out a bit and take it up through the Uni grounds where the hill is less severe, as I have had enough by now, as St. Stephens ain't funny. Nice park though, nice place to work. And I haven't fallen off yet either and only a few miles home.

No one's in when I get back, I could have done with a bit of help peeling my stuff off. I'm hopping around the kitchen on one leg trying to get wet tights off, with a dog licking the snot and grime off my face.

My feet have got granny fingers and my wife's blackbury said overcast.
       

Hello Wiggo

I have been meaning to write this blog entry for some time but things have just got in the way. When we are out and about we see and encounter many interesting things from remote obelisks to emus. One particular encounter made us all smile, while out in the Kent countryside over Chilham way we saw an old guy out for a walk along a quiet road in the middle of nowhere. This was at the height of Bradley Wiggin's challenge for the 2012 tour. As we pulled alongside him, without looking round he called out "Hello Wiggo" in this cut glass English accent, we nearly fell of our bikes laughing. Earlier in the ride while sheltering like the soft lads that we are from the rain we saw a Lamborghini which I think I have later identified as a Gallardo (pronounced Giardo apparently) made a nice noise anyway

And a more dramatic picture although the one we saw was not doing this kind of stuff

Finally we passed a guy walking towards us that both Rob and I say "did you see that guy off the telly back there?" There followed much debate as to who the guy actually was and we finally agreed he was a kind of art historian kind of guy that does documentaries. Well a bit of digging reveals him as David Starkey who is indeed "off the telly" and he lives in a manor house over Chartham way.

 Quite an eventful ride all told, but I think "Hello Wiggo" will go down as one of the all time greats

London to Whitstable (in two stages) cycle route 1

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.