On the road

Well i'm on my way. Currently sitting on a ferry for Dunkirk in Dover, still looking a the white cliffs as we haven't left the port yet. We're at least an hour behind schedule due to the weather, and I'm a bit concerned about how much the boat is rolling given we've not set to sea yet.

The ride here today, from just outside Canterbury, was horrible. A strong wind was gusting wildly against me most of the way, bringing with it constant if not heavy rain. Not only was progress slow due to the wind and undulations, but navigation was pretty tricky too. The wind made my map holder flap like a crisp packet, and even when I could read it the map wasn't really up to the job. In the UK I tend to navigate by torn out pages of an old road atlas. It normally works quite well outside of cities, offering an appropriate amount of detail without being too bulky. However it does rely on village sign posts matching up with the map and that didn't appear to be the case today. Admittedly a self-indicted instance of getting left and right mixed up didn't help. My back-up is to use the gps on my phone, but with the rain I was reluctant to get it out much, even in its water-resistant jacket. Upshot was that progress was very slow and I was sure I would miss the boat, but the long downhill into Dover helped recover time. Over all a journey I expected to take an hour and a quarter took two hours.

Yesterday was much better. The route was from Putney to Littlebourne, near Canterbury, where my cousin Rachel lives. The sun shone and the Kentish countryside was a pleasure to cycle through. I saw two pony and traps, something I wasn't expecting to encounter until Albania. Towards the end I overlapping with a charity bike ride. "Not far to go", someone shouted. "No, only 3000 miles", I didn't reply.

It was hard work though. It's not a flat part of the country and I was reminded how much extra effort a fully loaded bike requires on hills, and how much it takes out of you. After feeling pretty good earlier in the day I did struggle a bit later on, in particular when crossing the North Downs. Made me think again that planned distances over mountainous stretches later in the trip will be too ambitious.

I was very grateful for Rachel's superb hospitality at the end of the day. A tasty chili and rice was perfect for refueling and I slept very well.

On the sea now, boat rolling rather. Expecting to be about an hour and a half late. Not sure where this will leave me for getting to Ypres this afternoon but will let you know...