Leonardo Southampton is like Leonardo Plymouth (without the noise) and probably any other Leonardo in the world. The receptionist welcomed us and said we could take the bikes to our room or leave them in the Luggage store, which is what we did. As Rich hadn’t used the battery at all there was no need to charge it and I. as usual, took the Fazua battery to our room and put it on charge overnight.
We went to the ‘Spoons for a couple of pints of Greene King IPA at £1.79 and Doom Bar at £1.99 and had a bowl of Nachos to nibble before we went to Diego’s a Portuguese restaurant just round the corner. A chicken wrap and chips and a Portuguese sausage and chips with a Becks beer, gave us a bill of £45 with a fairly generous tip. A pleasant meal.
I filled my boots at breakfast while Rich was more abstemious, sticking to cereals and fruit. As we checked out and were leaving the heavens opened and I got soaked, whilst getting lost on my way to the Itchen toll bridge, fortunately toll-free for cyclists. Rich was heading back to Dorchester so retraced his steps from yesterday.
That was the last real rain of the day. I got caught in some little flurries but generally stayed dry. Unfortunately, it was far from the last of the problems. As I was coming down the hill towards Bursledon bridge, I felt the familiar bump as the back tyre deflated. I pulled into a small housing close and unpacked everything, turned the bike upside-down and removed the back wheel thinking that it would be easy to replace the tube and carry on. Usually it’s quite easy to get a tyre off the rim but not in this case. I struggled to get the tyre lever to work easily but after much cussing and swearing off the tyre came. I put in one of my replacement tubes and then found it almost impossible to get the tyre back on the rim. Quite why it was such a problem I don’t know. I don’t remember having trouble putting it on the wheel originally but it was a very tight fit and it must have taken me about an hour before I finally got away again. I was following the A27, mainly in cycle lanes or on the pavement, so the day was both noisy and, at times, noxious.
I was able to turn off the main drag and make my way across country on rough tacks along the Hilsea lines, an area developed by the military from the 17th century onwards to protect Portsmouth. It’s now been turned into a nature reserve and play area. I manged to get lost, wasting yet more time before I picked up the bridge across an arm of Russell’s Lake that brought me into Havant. Punctures seem to go in pairs for me and, sure enough, twixt Havant and Emsworth down it went again. This time an even greater struggle to repair and well over an hour wasted. I determined to change the tyre at the first available opportunity which, fortuitously happened at Fishbourne where I spotted Barreg cycles. They couldn’t have been more helpful. I’m not sure if it was Barry or Reg that dealt with me, but he sold me a tyre and tube and spent a fair bit of time putting it on, for no cost other then the materials. Typical LBS and sure to have plenty of customers because of the service they provide.
At least now I felt that I had solved the puncture problem but was running very late. My projected journey of 77 miles would normally take about 8 hours with stops, so expected arrival at Newhaven would be the usual 5 pm. I plugged on, by-passing Bognor (bugger Bognor) and hit the sea again at Littlehampton. The wind was getting up but was behind the beam so, if anything, helpful.
I now had to do a 5 mile detour inland, as there is no cycleway along the coast between Rustington and Goring. Yet more delay as I was held up at rail crossings on the way.
However, from Goring I was now on cycle paths or lanes for most of the rest of the journey and then, to cap a horrible day my front brake, once again started binding for no accountable reason. It was holding me back so badly that, eventually, I stopped and removed the brake pads, hoping that the rear brakes, used sensibly would be sufficient, particularly as there were no steep hills to come.
Daylight was fading fast as I hit Brighton with another 10 miles to travel. I switched on the lights and they worked admirably until the front light dimmed and wouldn’t come back to full power, so I finished the journey through Rottingdean and Peacehaven with inadequate lights and dodgy brakes, arriving in Newhaven at 7.45pm.
As it has been such a traumatic day I’ve taken no pictures, so the blog is just a load of blether. Maybe tomorrow will see some improvement, both in the weather and my fortunes. I’m not sure what to do about the brakes; tomorrow is the longest projected journey but again, mainly flat until the last 5 miles. I’ll sleep on it whilst the thunder rolls around Newhaven and the rain, once again, lashes down.
