Monday August 8, 2022, 65 km (40 miles) – Total so far: 2,772 km (1,722 miles)
We had 3 options for getting back to Bournemouth. One was to catch the train to London, then scramble across town to catch another train to Bournemouth. We both dismissed this, not wanting to go to London,
The second option was to buy a van. We had a couple lined up to look at. One was a campervan, but the speedo didn’t work, a common problem with Renaults, so we dismissed that one. The other van was only available to view in the evening and we didn’t want to hang around Dover.
The third option was to cycle back, or at least part of the way. So that’s what we chose.
It was a beautiful day when we left Dover, but first there was a massive hill to climb. My legs burned as I powered up, breathing hard and wondering where all my fitness was. I mean, I’ve just cycled 2700 kms across Europe. Shouldn’t I be fitter? Cycling along flat canal paths for the past few months had not prepared me for this!
12 kms later we arrived in Folkestone, which is on the coast, and also where the channel tunnel goes across to France. The old train station caused a stir of excitement from Mike. He reminisced about the days when he’d catch the train to Folkestone, then the ferry across to France, the channel tunnel non-existent in the olden days.
Food trucks lined the pier, and we had our choice of cuisines from around the world. Mexican, Argentinian, Thai, but we chose the Greek bus and ordered pita breads and a selection of dips.
We sat at the dining tables on the pier, soaking up the warm sunny weather. Where was everyone? The crowds of people had overwhelmed us on the Belgium coast and we’d expected the same in England, but there were a handful of others on the pier.
A magnificent tail wind helped us on our way today as we cycled through a forest path which followed the royal military canal. We couldn’t see much of the canal, but we did see something we’d never expected to see. I noticed Mike stopped up ahead of me, peering through a fence. As I approached he cautioned me to be quiet. I stopped, got of my bike and shrugged at him, my quiet speak for what’s going on?
He pointed through a gap in the trees. I peered through and saw a strange animal looking back at me, a mouthful of grass hanging from its mouth. It had antlers, but it wasn’t a deer.
“What is it?’“ I whispered.
“Antelope. Looks, there’s more.” Mike pointed through a gap.
There must have been about ten antelope, quietly walking along a track. It turns out we were cycling alongside a wildlife park. We also saw some bison, and the highlight were two giraffes! Altogether we must spent about 30 minutes there spotting wildlife, taking photos and marvelling at animals you would not expect to see in England.
As came out of the forest path, we were able to zoom along the narrow country roads at 22 kms/hr, the wind from behind helping us along our way.
In the afternoon it got harder. The wind shifted and became a head wind and the scenery not so nice. Massive rain clouds appeared by the coast and the thought of being trapped in a downpour in the middle of nowhere had us worried. We checked our phones, but there was no camping on the route today. A decision was made to go Rye and decide what to do from there.
It was 5.30pm by the time we got to Rye and we’d had enough riding for the day. We decided to catch the train to Eastbourne but the next one was cancelled so we booked the 6.50pm one and also booked a hotel in Eastbourne just to be sure we had a bed.
The train ride was not too busy, and easy enough to get our loaded bikes on board. We arrived at our hotel, still unsure where to go from here. One day at a time, we’ll decide tomorrow.
You can follow our journey on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP03_iOV9QrtahRxRPBTVB9ZTNOmdiznv
