Back to reality…

None of the proirity to cyclist that we’d enjoyed when boarding our ferry in Dunkirk..back in the UK we were last off the ferry, having had to wait in the middle of the disembarking traffic lanes while they unloaded all the vehicles (welcome to England, we said to our european fellow cyclists….where the car rules…)…we finally lead the way for the other foreign tourers, through the port of Dover.  “Follow the red line” we were told. Whether that was made from  paint or the blood of previous cyclists was hard to tell – it wound back and forth around trucks and cars up pavements and to a dead end where it went through a security gate but the gate was locked.

We pressed the buzzer and a gate behind us opened. We all looked bemused and a docker yelled “Go through that gate.” But what about our red line?? Anyway, by the time we got Tilly turned around, off the pavement back on to the road and through the gate the second gate, which formed a compound had shut and we were all trapped.

I presumed they shot us now, but after a bit more yelling from the dock workers, with our fellow tourers beginning to longingly look behind them at the departing ferries, the gate opened and the red line we were all suppose to be following went under a concrete barrier!

The yellow diversions signs again weaved us around on a course that was more technical than the Olympic BMX course and we, naturally enough, ran out of any colour sign or line and had to fend for ourselves at the main dock round about, where our only option was to bump up and over the curbs and dash out on to the main road and across to the proper cycle path.

We managed this but didn’t see any of the other cyclists follow. Maybe they did actually just head back to the ticket office and go home on the return ferry, who knows.

The wind was blowing a hoolie, as usual, and for once it was behind us. So we had a fair bit of help going up the hill out of Dover heading north but we still pushed Tilly…With lots of traffic whizzing by and a tiny occasional cycle lane, we didn’t like the idea of wobbling away as we climbed at 4kph so resorted to our feet.

Once clear of Dover Castle we didn’t have to peddle at all to get to our Airbnb and had a glorious 6km wind powered roll. Brilliant! By the time we reached it, even the racer boys were having to give it some wellie to get past us as we powered along.

The wind continued the next day and having realised it’s mistake of helping us the previous day, duly changed to make us slog into it once we cut accorss the coast near Margate, but the ride was lovely and the ice cream at Whitstables ‘Bears Ice Cream Emporium’ was amazing and probably the best ice cream we’ve ever had.  None of your vanilla and mint choc chip, all weird and wonderful flavours and toppings. Fabulous!

We were quite enjoying ourselves back in England, but then the Kent Cycling Transport Officer, who has surely misused a vowel in the county name, got to work and we were on and off the bike, with panniers having to come off, handlebars unbolted and even the whole bike having to be lifted over barriers.  We had to do this so many times we lost count, but I’d say over the two days we were on and off close to a 100 times.  We even gave up on routes and turned around and headed for the main roads at times as there’s little worse than stopping and starting all day for a cyclist.  It uses so much energy, but having had a great evening with another friend Mick on our FAF tour, we thought it worth it.

As we approached London and left Kent we hit the London Cycle Network which was a welcome relief and pretty good by UK cycle route standards.

We stayed at Docklands and met up with more family for another great evening….This FAF tour is certainly socially enjoyable if nothing else!

We’d now been cycling for 6 days non stop, which for us is getting to the end of our endurance, but had one final ride before a day off in St Alban’s to visit my Aunt.

The route out of London was excellent, only two anti cycling barriers which we ignored and stayed on the main road instead, plenty of canals, old railways and parks, a really lovely ride.

Once outside London the network again deteriorated and approaching St Alban’s the cycle path – proper tarmac and parallel to the road – was so overgrown it was like cycling through a jungle. I got cut 7 times on my arms and legs drawing blood and Linda once, we both got stung to bits too and it helped us make decisions about friends and family (FAF) tour UK section.

It’s our own fault of course, if we hadn’t gone to NL and Belgium we wouldn’t have had miles and miles of perfectly smooth well maintained free flowing obstacle free cycle route, we wouldn’t have ended up in chocolate box squares each evening sitting at a cafe in a square watching the cyclists whiz past and no cars anywhere.  But once you’ve tasted the crack cocaine of cycling NL, it’s very very hard to not be seriously disappointed by much (not all) of the UK cycle network.  Added to which some of the towns we’ve ended up in the UK look so poor we almost could have been back in India.

So, we’ve decided the UK is just too much FAF for us on a tandem when Europe offers such excellent cycle routes, so we’re considering scrapping our plans and heading for the coast and a ferry back to Europe, at least that’s todays decision, …but you know how much we change our minds!