The Road to Dover

 We left our grubby digs early and breakfasted in Winchelsea Beach Café, protected from light rain in their outdoor shelter.  Then we were on to Camber Sands where we had coffee and met Mark’s brother-in-law, Julian, who strangely wanted to pedal with us for a while.  Unluckily for him, we were stupid enough to take a diversion to Dungeness to take a look at the power station.  The route was a bit of a mess, and Derek was really struggling on a very rough track.  Then, when we got to the point, we all had to dismount to push our bikes across the shingle and some rough ground, before circumnavigating the power station.  It was odd that there was barely a whisper from the group, especially as the drizzly conditions were pretty miserable, but maybe that was because we had had a tail wind all morning.  

But then poor Tim, who had left the car in Hastings, realised the full horror of his plan to go back to pick it up - not just because of the wind he was turning into but also because of the “b…ard hill into Hastings”.

Meanwhile the rest of us plodded on, having a good lunch in Hythe, and we progressed well through Folkestone till Den’s derailleur conveniently packed up on Dover Hill.  We walked the rest of the hill to the Valiant Sailor to await the Fraser rescue vehicle…which took some considerable time to arrive.  So some of us were a bit scratchy by this point but, once Tim arrived, we sailed down the hill to our hotel in no time at all.  Then the usual relaxation and celebration at having completed another hugely enjoyable challenge.

Dover to Grimsby