Touring the Southeast of England

Sunday 8^th June 2025

This tour was designed to help me continue in my quest to cycle in every English county, but it started with a tile-gathering expedition around Selsey in West Sussex.  I’m staying with friends both before and after the tour and since they were out when I arrived, and to loosen up after the 4½ hour drive, I went for a trip round the local area.  A couple of the tiles were right on the edge of the land: one involved a hike on foot down a pebbly beach, but since it was approaching low tide, this didn’t pose a problem.  The other tile simply involved ignoring & cycling past a ‘private land, footpath only’ sign which was bristling with security cameras.   

The area is completely flat, but the strong westerly wind compensated to give me a challenge.  Tomorrow I’m hoping for a friendly wind direction since I’ll be panniered up for a ride heading initially east for a couple of days before looping round to the north, skirting the southern edge of London and returning to Chichester.  I have six additional counties in my sights this week: West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent, Greater London, Surrey and the Isle of Wight.  I’ll only just sneak into Greater London, but I set the rules and I’ve determined that it will count even if I’m only there for a couple of miles.

It appears lady luck is with me since the forecast is for the westerly to abate after two days and switch to an easterly on Wednesday.  If that happens, I’ll be very happy.

But even before the tour has started properly, I’ve already secured 29 new tiles and registered my first county – West Sussex.

Monday 9^th June 2025

Although Pagham, my first destination, was only a mile away, I needed to divert north along quite a narrow and busy road for a couple of miles to get there, joining with the morning commuters.  Once I reached Bognor Regis, I headed east towards Eastbourne with the wonderful 12mph westerly breeze (which seemed much stronger by the sea) providing a wonderful boost.  I was just short of Worthing when I felt the need for sustenance and a mobile snack bar stationed by the beach served me well. 

There was a group of tables cordoned off with wind breaks (which were needed) and I spent a very entertaining half hour listening to some locals, who were about my age, complaining loudly to each other about tourists parking their cars, youths on electric bikes and the price of bus fares.  From their conversation, I gained the distinct impression that they watched GB News, read the Daily Mail and voted Reform.  I may have been wrong, but naming your pet dog Boris (I think it was an American Bully breed) gave me my first clue.  The conversation progressed to complaining about grandchildren being unable to afford properties and the frequency of the Brighton bus service, but I felt had to leave when they started complaining about Asians wearing burqas. 

My route took me through Littlehampton which interested me for two reasons: it had a wonderful retracting bridge over the River Arun and it also still had a gas holder. It seems that this is one of only 53 left in the UK and is scheduled for demolition soon.

The tailwind continued all day and by my 2nd coffee stop in Lewes, I had covered 55 effortless miles.  I’d previously arranged with my accommodation that I’d arrive about 5pm, so I felt a half-hour stop in this lovely town was quite in order.  I spent time sat on a bench outside the coffee shop chatting to a local lady on a mobility scooter who was remarkably well-informed about all the cycle paths.  

Today’s route was largely along the sea front and proved very pleasant, taking in the towns of Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing and Brighton.  I’ve not been to Brighton for years, so it was good to refresh myself of the touristy bits.  I wasn’t terribly impressed by any of them, overlaid as they were with the overpowering smell of doughnuts.  Blackpool’s smell is fish ‘n’ chips, but Brighton’s is definitely much sweeter.  And I don’t like doughnuts. 

I was obviously on the look-out for tiles on the trip, but I missed a very easy one in Shoreham.  I was cycling alongside a local chap who kindly offered to guide me on a complicated route across the locks and when my Garmin beeped to suggest I went left, my guide went right and so I missed the tile by a matter of feet.  I didn’t tell him: that would’ve been churlish.  But in total today I collected a further 90 new tiles.

My host tonight proudly announced that the town was awash with restaurants, and he recommended a bistro just round the corner, so I went there only to find it didn’t open until Wednesday.  I’d’ve thought he should have known that.  My next choice of eatery was a pub right on the beach, but they only served food on Friday and Saturday.  My final choice was excellent though: an Indian restaurant where I enjoyed two poppadoms, a lovely lamb biryani and a pint of Cobra.

I’ve just confirmed my digs for tomorrow night and checked the weather forecast again – still dry with a fabulous 15mph WSW breeze to boost me along my generally ENE direction.  Who could ask for more? 

Tuesday 10^th June 2025

My hosts Dave and Renata were a lovely couple who offered breakfast within in the Airbnb price which was very generous.  Nothing fancy, just cereal & toast and proper coffee which set me up nicely.  The weather was overcast, but still with a 15mph WSW wind – perfect weather for me today.  With that assistance, the first 22 miles mostly along quiet coastal path was idyllic, passing through Bexhill-on-Sea and Hastings. 

The Bosun’s Bite café wasn’t in a pretty part of Rye harbour, but it was adjacent to the lifeboat station – handy in case I fell in a deep puddle.  They didn’t served scones, so I had to make do with apricot cake.

My new bike video camera has taken some getting used to and after I thought I’d mastered all its intricacies and idiosyncrasies, yesterday it let me down.  When I looked at what I’d recorded, large chunks of the ride were omitted which was a bit disappointing.  Today, I’ve been regularly checking that it’s really recording (it seems to have been) so I’m hoping to have some interesting footage.  I don’t usually save the videos but simply download some stills from it.   I find these easier to review later.

After my morning coffee, the route took me into Rye which is a lovely town but I didn’t stay long, simply crossing the river Rother and heading back out again.  

There was a great cycle path leading out of the town which ran alongside the road for much of the way to Lydd where I found the ancient church of All Saints very interesting.  The church is known as the Cathedral of the Marsh and a board outside explained that worshippers there have probably seen Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. They lived through the reformation, two world wars, COVID 19 and are still worshipping there now. 

When I left Lydd, I headed South to Dungeness which was not as fascinating as I’d imagined.  I have seen pictures of this area on TV, and I was looking for complete remoteness and a very bleak landscape, but although interesting, it certainly didn’t feel remote, and the landscape wasn’t at all as I’d imagined.  It isn’t its fault; just that my imagination got a bit ahead of itself.  I did spot a house that had featured on a Grand Designs Home of the Year programme in 2016. It is now a rental property priced at between £1366 and £3629 per week. But that price doesn’t stop nosey cyclists stopping and photographing the place.

I passed right by the site of the PLUTO (PipeLine Under The Ocean) pumping station and never noticed it, which was always intended from its inception.  The project supplied fuel across to France during the 2nd World War to support the Normandy invasion in 1944 and the pumping station was disguised as a bungalow.  They certainly fooled me today.

The area round the power station was intriguing, but importantly, I discovered that I could get a couple of tiles without having to scale the fence of a nuclear facility.  That’s always a bonus.

As I turned inland to head to Canterbury, I noticed that the route passed one of the 100 Greatest Climbs of the Southeast, so even though I was on a touring bike with luggage, I felt I had to climb it. The Lympne Hill climb is rated 4/10 by Simon Warren so wasn’t too challenging. The trickiest bit was avoiding all the traffic on the narrow road. I exceeded the suggested four minute climbing time by two minutes, but who’s counting?

Later, I passed by the entrance to the Channel Tunnel.  This was quite serendipitous since I never realised it was there.  What alerted me was the many railway lines beneath a bridge I passed over.  Then later, there were the ‘Links fahren’ and ‘Tenez la gauche’ signs. 

My digs are in the north of Canterbury so I managed to get a look at the cathedral on the way through.  After tea tonight in a nearby pub, I decided to have a walk into town again.  It’s just less than two miles along a riverside path so it was a pleasant walk.  Apart from the cathedral and the buildings of the King’s School, I can’t say that I was all that impressed with Canterbury.  It certainly doesn’t have the broad appeal of York or even Chester.  

The pub tonight was chosen based on its proximity rather than anything else.  The food and beer were fine, but the clientele looked a bit rough.  This hypothesis appeared to be proven when a chap walked through to the beer garden with a scruffy mid-sized dog.  After a few seconds there was an almighty kerfuffle and the dog and owner rushed back into the pub looking quite shaken.  Several customers then came over commiserating with the pair, offering drinks and dog biscuits as appropriate.  It seems that the poor dog had been attacked by another dog in the beer garden.  After the injured parties had left, the ‘other dog’ and his owner walked through the bar.  The dog was an enormous great Dane, the size of a donkey!  I’m surprised the other dog survived being attacked by that monster.  Its owner was a weedy man who stood about 5 foot 4.  The dog would’ve weighed more than him. 

Wednesday 11^th June 2025

Well, the Met office were absolutely right when they forecast the change in wind direction today, and I was very grateful for it.  I didn’t benefit from it immediately, since the first part of the journey to Gillingham went North to Herne Bay where I planned to have breakfast.  This proved a little more tricky than I’d anticipated since everywhere I saw fronted directly onto the street with nowhere to park my bike.  But then I found a Turkish restaurant selling all manner of cakes but also, Turkish breakfast which turned out to be absolutely delicious!   A mixture of hot and cold foods which all worked well to make a wonderful meal.  The only odd thing about the café was the very laid-back jazz music playing throughout.  It would have made a great background to a relaxing evening meal, but over breakfast on Herne Bay High Street?  Well, it was certainly memorable.

After breakfast, I simply followed the coast heading West, picking up whatever tiles there were apart from one which was JUST out of reach.  To reach it, I left my bike and walked right to the end of the pier and leaned over as far as I could, but the Garmin flatly refused to accept my efforts and the tile remained unentered.  I did consider asking a nearby fisherman if he’d tie my Garmin to his line and practice his casting, but I didn’t carry it through. 

I admired the many beach huts on the way into Whitstable before weaving round on very quiet lanes to Faversham through orchards (pears, not apples) and a few fields of hops.  By far the biggest crop in this region was broad beans.  Oh, and solar panels.  I passed Cleve Hill which boasted a huge solar farm due to be completed in 6 months’ time.

I got a bit worried as I approached the Sheppey Crossing.  I could see an enormous bridge spanning the strait, but my road clearly wasn’t that.  Or at least I hoped it wasn’t looking at the volume of heavy traffic (in both weight and volume) using it.  It turned out that the ‘new’ crossing opened in 2006 which relieved the traffic on the old one so much so that I could quite enjoy the ride across the water along a cycle path.

I stopped just before crossing the bridge and immediately several dogs began barking.  When I looked down, there were five small dogs each with their hind quarters attached to wheeled trolleys!  I guess that they were disabled or otherwise injured, but five of them?  [The dogs were Corgis and further research suggests that they are prone to hind limb problems.]

I was quite surprised by the number of car transporters leaving Sheppey until I discovered that Sheerness is a major port for car imports, handling about 450,000 each year. From one spot, I saw hundreds of Ford vehicles, and a quick look at Google Maps shows probably more than 10,000 cars waiting by the dockside.

With just 30 miles to go and over three hours of the day left, I decided to treat myself to a coffee and cake in a village of Queenborough, just south of Sheerness.  They had just run out of scones so I had to choose a cake.  I selected something I think they called bread pudding and it was delicious: heavy, bursting with raisins and just perfect for me at that time. 

I spent rather too long here enjoying the food and atmosphere, and when I set off I found I was heading into the wind and climbing.  This was the hilliest part of the ride, and I really wasn’t in the mood.  My Garmin was playing silly beggars (or perhaps it was the route that I’d programmed into it) but it guided me up some steps onto the sea breakwater and then, barely 100 yards later, the path ended and I had to retrace my steps both literally and figuratively.  I also clashed with the school throwing out time, so the road through Minster was clogged with mums in 4x4s picking up their offspring.  Once I had turned back heading West with a tailwind, my mood improved and the last hour was the fastest of the day.  Quite a bit of today’s journey was spent mooching round towns, sometimes on foot, so my average speed took a hammering.

I wanted to visit Sheppey because I had a mental image of the coast being full of muddy estuaries, but I was wrong (again). Once I was on the island, it was no different to the mainland, and the north coast overlooking the Thames estuary had a lovely beach.

Finally, I was amazed by the hills upon entering Gillingham.  No-one warned me that the town was hilly!  I was expecting plenty of traffic in the town (which I saw), but I was quite shocked to see a teenage girl on an electric scooter zooming along through the traffic with two toddlers on board!

My digs are very pleasant inside, but they are found in an area packed with takeaway restaurants but none that offered indoor dining which is what I wanted.  I finally found a wonderful Indian restaurant about 20 minutes away and enjoyed a really good meal and a couple of pints of Cobra.  Just to replace my fluids and carbohydrates, you realise.

Thursday 12^th June 2025

I had checked out eating places for breakfast today weeks ago and the most promising one was about half a mile away on Chatham High Street.  It opened at 7.30 and although it is a busy pedestrian street, there was a convenient lamp post to which I could secure my bike.  There were a couple of chaps chatting outside as I arrived, and as I was locking the bike, the older one called across “Allo guv’nor, ya’ll right?” in the broadest of estuary accents.  It was genuine too, since the same chap cheerfully took my breakfast order.  Although I’d ordered a full breakfast, not really reading the menu, I was a bit taken back (but pleased) to see the plate laden with chips as well as other stuff you might expect on a breakfast plate.

As I ate, customers came and went, all with the same cheery banter (“Cuppa tea, please guv, four sugars: I’m on a diet!”).  It was like I’d stumbled onto the set of Eastenders, except that everyone appeared happy.

The Met office yesterday forecast that rain was expected at noon with possible thunder storms, but this morning, they’d removed that threat.  I’ll probably just need suncream but no waterproofs today.  I’m writing this whilst having breakfast, and the busiest stretch of the ride is about to begin, navigating Chatham and getting over the River Medway at Rochester, but once that’s out of the way, I’m expecting rolling hills and pretty villages as I pass from Kent, through Greater London and into Surrey.  But I’ve been wrong before…

Well it’s now teatime and I’m pleased to report that the rain held off (it tried a bit about 12.30, enough to wet the roads but not enough for waterproofs) and the temperature rose.  Once I’d cleared Rochester, the route continued alongside the A2 for about five miles apart from one brief spell when traffic noise gave way to birdsong as I briefly entered the Shorne Woods Country park.

When I turned away from the motorway, the roads improved and I had a lovely ride through Kent, and then a very brief spell in the London Borough of Bromley, which counts as my visit to Greater London and thus ticks off another county.  I then entered Surrey which met my expectations: green, quite agricultural but with very high hedgerows which obscured any view.

I was a bit surprised that there were very few tea shops en route.  I had to rely on Google Maps to help out which it did by finding a very pleasant place in Godstone, which required just a slight diversion.  I was checking final directions to the tea shop I’d selected when a friendly local tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was lost.  When she heard I was looking for a tea shop, she insisted that I visit the one she was heading towards just across the road.  So the favoured shop I’d identified missed out.  The recommended place was very good, though.

The last 20 miles today were quite flat after the constant undulations in the morning.  My speed during the day reflected the conditions: the first three miles were almost at walking pace as I struggled to escape the conurbations of Chatham and Rochester.  Then there were almost fifty miles of up and down as I crossed the Surrey Hills, before a lovely run down to Loxham to my digs. 

After yesterday’s deprivation in Gillingham, tonight I’m in a very affluent village, full of big houses and fancy cars.  It’s a very interesting place, however.  It seems that in 2019 it attempted to declare independence from the UK due to the political turmoil.  As a result it formed its own government, recruited a military, and established the Loxwood groat as its own currency.  They even elected a monarch, the Queen of Loxwood, Katheryn Adelina, who has stated that the village itself would be enforcing 15th-century law.  I didn’t see any evidence of this coup, however.  The village looked pretty ordinary to me.

Friday 13^th June 2025

I was getting the bike ready this morning and noticed the back tyre pressure was very low.  I checked for punctures but couldn’t see any so I just popped a new tube in and I’ll see how I get on.  It may just be that an old patch has begun to leak a bit after yesterday’s heat.  We’ll see.

I’m currently enjoying a breakfast very near Dunsfold aerodrome (where they filmed the ‘Star in a reasonably priced car’ on Top Gear).  The breakfast order seemed easy to me but confused the server.  I ordered a sausage breakfast roll with an egg (it didn’t come with egg, but extras were offered).  “Oh, you need a full breakfast roll then”.  I replied that I didn’t want the bacon on the full breakfast roll.  “But it comes with bacon!”.  That was my point.  So I ordered the full breakfast roll without the bacon, and I received a sausage & egg roll, which was what I wanted.  Goodness knows how she worked out the bill.

Once more, I was surprised how undulating the roads are in Surrey.  I did half of the climbing in the first third of the distance which felt good – I never like looking forward to a difficult end to the ride.  That said, the last few days riding must’ve been catching up with me because I was feeling tired after 35 miles so when I saw a sign for a café in a gorgeous village called Upton Grey I turned off to buy a sandwich.  I sat chatting to a local resident who was also a cyclist (and a golden retriever owner) and another cyclist for perhaps 45 minutes while I ate a tuna baguette and sheltered from the sun – it was over 25°C again for most of the day.  Once I got back on the bike things seemed easier and I made good progress over to Andover.  

On the way, I passed the home of Bombay Sapphire gin and saw a group of people who had clearly just been on the factory tour.  Sadly, I recognised that I fitted their demographic almost entirely!  I didn’t stop, however tempted I was.  I also noted that I was in Watership Down country (the Down is a real place – only the rabbits are fictional).  I considered riding to the Down (it was about five miles from the route), but I decided against it due to the climbing involved.  They call them Downs, but to me, I feel they should be called Ups.

Andover was the only town of note today and I wasn’t looking forward to navigating through, but it was great.  Many clearly marked cycle paths and traffic-light-controlled junctions.

Previously in the day the lady at the YHA called to ask what time I would arrive.  I felt quite proud when, without really trying, I rolled up to the gate at 5pm, precisely the time I’d agreed! I’m in an 8 bedded room (four bunks) with en suite, but there’s only me in it so far.  After a shower, I headed out to The Crown Inn, the only place for miles that does food.  It boasted a typical pub menu, but the food was exceptional.  I was even persuaded to have a dessert (apple pie & custard).

I’ve spent the last hour reading alone in my private room with seven empty beds.  I’m just hoping that the wind is kind again tomorrow: I’m heading SE and the forecast is for a 14mph SW.

Saturday 14th June 2025

There was no food to be had anywhere near the hostel nor on my route before 10am, so I just decided that I’d stop at the first café that was open on the way, knowing that there would be plenty in Winchester (20 miles away) as a fall-back.  I cycled through the Wallops (Over, Middle and Nether) and past numerous chocolate-box thatched cottages.  Although I passed close by Middle Wallop airfield, I neither saw nor heard any sign of the Army Air Corps who are based there.  I don’t suppose they work Saturdays.

On the way, I saw numerous old tractors, probably on their way to an agricultural show.

A couple of miles outside Winchester there was a sign to the Farley Mount monument, and since it was at the summit of a hill which might offer good views, I headed there.  The monument was interesting, but the views were lacking, so I continued on my way to have breakfast at a farm shop on top of the next hill.

Once in Winchester, I went to the cathedral (I’d been humming the song by the New Vaudeville band all morning) and sat outside for half an hour with another coffee and some flapjack (this will serve as lunch, since my breakfast was so late)

Escaping from Winchester took quite a while. I’d negotiated the narrow streets efficiently, but I needed to cross the M3 at Junction 9. There was a cycle route passing beneath the motorway roundabout but it was closed and finding an alternative route was horrendous and I kept getting lost. At one point I found myself in the loading area of a Tesco supermarket! Half an hour later, I was at last free of the city and back on track.

From Winchester, most of the climbing was behind me, and so was the wind, so it was a lovely ride down through the Hampshire countryside avoiding all the towns.  I was quite surprised to enter West Meon, a village I knew well, having been there just two years ago.  I hadn’t even noticed that it was on the route.

By 4.15 I was in Chichester experiencing a Dutch-style cyclist-friendly roundabout.  I had seen pictures of these on social media just a week or two ago and never realised that there was one in Chichester (there are actually two with a third one planned).  The idea is that, like in the Netherlands, pedestrians and cyclist have right of way on the roundabout.  The problem in the UK is that drivers are not conditioned to watch out for cyclists and so I was nervously cycling round, not trusting drivers to give way.  I was right to be nervous since a car that had just stopped for pedestrians promptly set off right in front of me.  Thankfully, I was expecting just such a scenario and managed to stop in time.

I didn’t spend any time in Chichester, eager as I was to return to my hosts, Louise and Terry so after a quick stop for photos in the centre, I carried on down to their home in Sidlesham. Here, I enjoyed a cup of tea and some cake before taking a shower and then heading off with them to the local pub for a meal.

Sunday 15^th June 2025

I slept very well last night, even though I was only in bed late.  I had initially planned to drive to Lymington to catch the ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, but it was suggested that the Portsmouth – Fishbourne crossing would be easier.  I’d chosen Lymington simply because I didn’t fancy driving into Portsmouth, until I realised that I could use the Park & Ride and cycle the three miles to the harbour.  Consequently, I was up until midnight plotting the route and working out the logistics.

Everything worked well, but it was confusing at the harbour.  I rode into the port using the vehicle entrance (past a sign saying ‘no pedestrians’) but then had to switch to being a foot passenger once inside.  Thankfully, all the cars had checked in earlier, so it was very quiet.  

After that, the crossing was smooth and on time and by 10.40 I was first off the ferry and onto the quiet country lanes.  I knew that I had plenty of time, but my risk aversion meant that I was constantly looking at the clock, calculating the distance to go with the time available, always allowing a little extra in case of a puncture.  But I didn’t want to think about that!  As things turned out, I needn’t have worried since I got back with 20 minutes in hand but the over-riding memory of the day is time pressure.

After an hour on the road (but only ten miles from the port) I’d reached Sandown and decided to stop for a coffee at a beach-side café.  I’d almost three hours before the latest check-in at the port and still 25 hilly miles to go but since I knew I’d have a tailwind home, I decided I could spare 20 minutes for a some grub.  I parked my bike beside a spare seat overlooking the sea and popped in for the food.  When I came out, a man was sitting in ‘my’ seat with a group of others.  As I approached, he asked me to move my bike since it was in his way!  I politely explained that I put my bike there precisely to reserve that seat but a stand-off was avoided when some other people sat at a nearby table offered me a place.  Only then did I move my bike a few feet.

Sandown was just as I’d remembered from my last visit in 1981 so I didn’t linger.  I then climbed up to Shanklin which, from memory, was a much prettier town but I never saw it.  At least, I didn’t see the pretty bit.  I passed numerous guest houses before arriving at the railway station, and then the route took me along a track through a caravan park and out of town.  On a different day, I would have back-tracked to locate the centre, but time was against me (along with the wind at that point) so I pressed on down to Ventnor.

Ventnor is really hilly!  I mean, seriously steep roads which are also very narrow.  My route directed me up one of these roads, but when I arrived, it was closed, so I sought an alternative which was actually up a few flights of steps.  Without panniers, my bike was easy to carry up and at the top, just beyond the closure, I could continue climbing on the road.  This was providential since with no traffic I could weave about all I liked.  At the top I discovered that the road was fittingly called Zig Zag Road.  It was 1.15 by the time I reached the top and from here I had 14 miles to go back to the port with 90 minutes to spare.

The roads back to Fishbourne were very pretty, but with high hedges so not many views.  

I arrived at the port just as the ferry was arriving and was the first to board so I grabbed a sandwich from the shop and sat at the front watching Portsmouth grow closer.  On an interesting journey I saw many dinghies and yachts pass close by, the Brittany Ferries ship leave port and spotted the hovercraft land at Southsea.

Unlike Calmac ferries in Scotland, cyclists and pedestrians get off first and so I was quickly back at the park and ride place.  The route was very cycle-friendly, but there were lots of turns so it needed considerable checking so that I didn’t get lost.  

I then drove up to Ludgershall (near Andover) arriving about 5.15.  After a shower I walked into the village to see that there were two pubs.  One didn’t serve food, and the other had just stopped serving, so I ended up at an Indian restaurant once more – my third in a week.  Excellent food, though. Home tomorrow after 533 miles of cycling, 11 miles of walking and 552 miles of driving.  Oh, and about 15 miles on a ferry.  I cycled in 612 new tiles and climbed 7,295 metres (23,934 feet). And with the additional six counties this week, I have now cycled in 44 of the 48 ceremonial English counties. Just missing Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and the City of London.