Day 64 – Rye to Dover

 

 Date: Saturday 2^nd April 2011   Distance: Miles 45.02

 

It was a nice ride down to Dover Priory Station, just 3 miles from the Premier Inn. Although we couldn’t see the sea it would have been a short walk over the opposite green hill via footpaths. The approach to Dover is dominated by the castle. The town seems relatively small for the international repute and we were disappointed in the lack lustre buildings and certainly the station had seen better days!

 

After carrying the tandem up and down stairs, the lift being too small, we hadn’t long to wait for the train. It was £15 each, with a change at Ashford International ( fast train to St. Pancras that was painfully slow while we were on it!) for the Brighton train that would take us to our starting point at Rye.

 

We took in some of Rye’s heritage by visiting Mermaid Street oozing with character with uncomfortable cobbles and ancient houses. Then we were straight on to fairly rough cycle paths by fields with new born lambs and calves and off road mostly till Lydd. It was windy and against the wind at first. At Camber there was a high sea wall so we could only hear the crashing of the waves.  It was evident that farmers had sold off bits of their land for the use of the cycle way but barbed wire surrounded the fields and also on the sea side there was a ministry of defence area for rifle practice. It felt a little like we were enclosed in barbed wire. The flat land made for high wind exposure and we were especially glad for the cycleway when we heard of a motorbike accident further along - several had sped past us that day.

 

At Lydd we had just got off the bike to cross the road when I heard a terrific gush of air and the front Teflon tyre went flat as a pancake. Bob soon replaced the inner-tube which seemed to have just burst from fatigue- no sign of a hole in the tyre. Must have been all those stairs and cobbles and stones but it was the first puncture of the ride since we started in 2008.

 

It was a shingle cycleway in Sussex but soon as we crossed the Kent border it was wider and tarmac, making a more comfortable ride. Against the wind we rode into Dungeness past little huts and wooden chalets of varying sizes and weatherworn, giving a unique character to the place. The upturned boats and garden decor of reclaimed jetsum and flotsam intermingled with sea kale and hardy plants and house signs declared here lived an artist or mystic. Not much protection from the elements here and Dungeness’s 2 Power stations and 2 lighthouses dominate the surrounding area. The Old Lighthouse built 1901 was the 4^th to be built here and was used until the building of the first Power Station which obscured the light from the sea.  From 1960 a new lighthouse was situated closer to the water’s edge where it still operates today. The old Lighthouse is a tourist attraction and museum often also used for weddings. The Romney –Dymchurch little railway runs here and the coal fire smoke hung in the air nostalgically.

 

We had a meal at the Britannia Inn, where the ceiling was totally covered in key fobs, thousands! We had very nice jacket potatoes and being a bread and butter connoisseur I had to try it, it being made with a generous helping of Baileys. Delicious!

We rode by Lydd- on -Sea, then Greatstone- on -Sea beside sea on bike track. At Littlestone- on- Sea we rode up a private road then went through a gap in the flood defence to the promenade and rode 5 miles alongside the beach before coming off at Dymchurch where they were mending the sea defences ( quite high walls). Previously at St Mary’s Bay there had been a spectacle of groins sticking out of the sand like an ancient petrified forest. The coastline so far today hadn’t revealed a lot of sand but here there were people making sandcastles. The sea was a long way out and later there were sand dunes at Littlestone and a girl was being tutored in the art of windsurfing on the sands.

 

At Hythe there were more areas of ministry of Defence land where soldiers were actually firing at targets only yards away from the houses and road- a bit close for comfort!

 

We stopped for a cup of tea at the little railway cafe in Hythe, more for the use of the loos. The food looked good but we didn’t succumb. From here we took the Royal Military Canal path where an information plaque told us that we had missed the advanced listening mirror that was the precursor of radar. I would have liked to have seen that.

 

It had been flat all day with no free- wheeling. There were posters of local marine celebrity, Dave the dolphin but we didn’t see any signs of him. The promenade ended in a long steep flight of steps to the road and we carried the tandem up! Then it was a long steady climb into and out of Folkstone. We at last had a view of white cliffs and for the first time we walked- tired legs!!

 

After a tiny lane ascending to a mobile phone mast we were at the top and freewheeled down. On the journey up there was a group of sculptures called “sandlines” , alien looking and with premium phone numbers to ring to find out about them. We had passed several Martello towers by the sea.

We still managed to keep off the busy roads by taking the old Dover Rd. where we had the best view of the trip of the cliffs and sea. When we rejoined the main road there was a memorial to the Battle of Britain with war planes in the grounds but unfortunately it was past 4.30, when it closed. Bob sneaked in to take a picture of the aircraft.

 

Down the hill we gratefully approached the Premier Inn under greying sky and spots of rain. Unfortunately the restaurant was busy and there was no chance of a meal before 7.45 so we drove to Morrison’s, our side of town and had 2 nice meals and a drink for a mere £8 compared to £50 of the night before at the hotel and despite being near their closing time.