I pitched up at Alison’s house,where I have stayed on many occasions, as night was falling.  I wheeled my bike around the back of the house and Alison opened the door and welcomed me. At that point I noticed my front tyre was completely flat; but it was late, I wanted a shower and a drink, and it could wait until morning.  Pete and I played rugby together at Blackheath and although he’s a good bit older than me we have similar farming backgrounds and a shared interest in game shooting, so we’ve kept in touch for 50 years or more.  He and Alison have known each other for even longer but only earlier this year decided it was time to get married!

We had an excellent meal of ham hock and vegetables and a fruit pie and rather too much red wine.  I still had the blog to tackle when we went to bed at about 1130 and I only managed to write about half before calling it a day.  After 5 hours sleep, I woke up and continued writing, but when I came to publish, the internet connection let me down and I went back for another couple of hours in bed before I was up at 7.30 and getting packed with the hope of leaving at 0900.  We fiddled about with the Internet dongle but to no avail, so I delayed publication until this evening.  Alison cooked us a splendid FEB so the day started well but I’m not sure what I’ve done to deserve the bad breaks over the last couple of days which continued when I tried to fix the puncture.  The first tube I tried didn’t have a long enough valve and I couldn’t get my pump to work with it.  I tried another tube which seemed to work but when I started to put the panniers on it was losing air and I was losing patience. Eventually I found a small hole in the tube and put on a self-adhesive patch.  Praise be it worked but I had the distinct feeling throughout the day that I would have to do it again.  All of this faffing about meant that my projected 0900 start became 1010.  I was due to cycle the best part of 75 miles so, with stops for pictures and inevitable wrong turns it would take in the region of 8 hours – another finish in semi darkness.

To start with I made my way towards Dover by the back roads, heading roughly south east through the Kentish Weald, narrow roads with trees either side often meeting in the middle and creating a dark tunnel that opened up to provide views of grassland. Past the Black Robin pub at Kingston and the Duke of Cumberland at Barham, the roads rising and falling for the 15 miles to Dover.  I by-passed the port area and climbed up past Dover Castle the head of which is Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, all of which (Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich) I have visited on this trip.

At the top of the hill, above the famous White Cliffs (unsurprisingly not a bluebird in sight) I joined a delightful cycle path that descended at a pleasant gradient through St Margaret-at-Cliffe and found the sea again at Kingsdown.

Now heading along the promenade through Walmer and Deal with its stumpy pier and fishing boats pulled up above the tide-line

I passed the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, down a toll road, which I got through without paying,

 and kept inland from the golfing gem of this area, The Royal St George’s which has staged the Open Championship15 times, last time in 2021.

Through Sandwich I joined a track alongside the busy A256 and then made my way by back roads, stopping to take a picture of a Viking Longship replica

past Ramsgate port and marina

through the centre of town and on up the coast through Broadsdtairs

My main objective was to cycle around the North Foreland, not the eastern most point of Britain, that title belongs to Lowestoft Ness but the easternmost point of the south coast of England.  I have to confess I was confused as to when I actually achieved that, but it was around Kingsgate

Once around the bend there about six miles of concrete promenade, in places with waves throwing water high over the sea walls and onto the track

Past Margate and Westgate at Birchington-on-Sea I dived inland for about 8 miles, avoiding Reculver, at one point following an arrow straight farm track close to the A299 Thanet Way and finding the sea once again at Herne Bay.

More excellent Promenade, with cycling banned from 10 until 6 from May to the end of September.  Herne Bay once boasted the second longest pier in the UK but it was largely destroyed by storm resulting in the strange anomaly of the pier head remaining as an island over a kilometre from the shore.

My main objective was now Whitstable where I would leave the coast and head inland for the rest of my journey, my by-line of Watchet to Whitstable achieved.

There was a steep climb out of the town not helped by slow moving traffic but once over that it was a straightforward ride for the final ten miles to the Premier Inn at Faversham which I reached at about 1820 in gathering darkness.