DAY 1: Farnham to Canterbury
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FUN FACT: The Pilgrims’ Way starts at Winchester Cathedral, follows much of the modern A31, and ends at Thomas Beckett's shrine in Canterbury Cathedral.
How best to start your ride the length of France? Cycle half the width of England of course!
Having both missed out narrowly on the papacy, Paul and Richard decided to head to Canterbury to check out another major religious vacancy.
Just like Chaucer we started with the prologue. No sign of the Wife of Bath or Monks or any Knights, but the gathered throng of well-wishers at Phyllis Tuckwell gave us a wonderful send-off.
Successfully finding hills in Aldershot, we soon dropped onto the Basingstoke Canal for some waterside riding. With a tailwind progress was swift, and soon we were rolling under the M25 for the first time.
Our route would take us through the heart of London, via many of the major tourist attractions. Heathrow offered an opportunity to take selfies with landing aircraft, once we worked out that the landing lights were the line that planes followed!
On into outer London via Brentford for a rendezvous with Cosmo and Noah for a welcome stop, chat and photo.
Hammersmith and Kensington meant our progress began to slow as the roads became busier and the traffic lights more frequent. An early learning point noted was that we were the only cyclists in London who saw red lights as a binding instruction.
The Albert Hall hove into view as we entered Hyde Park. Wide avenues and a tailwind aiding progress.
Suddenly we were in the heart of London on a tour of Paul’s childhood holidays. His paternal grandfather was gatekeeper to the Queen Mother with a grace and favour lodge on The Mall. He showed Richard where he clambered onto roofs to look into Clarence House gardens.
Martial music accompanied us as we rounded Buckingham Palace to be halted by a full dress rehearsal for Trooping the Colour, celebrating the sovereign’s birthday. More importantly it blocked our route - surely, it’s the same every year.
By now our support crew were well on their way in Dora the Explorer (campervan).
Passing Big Ben (yes we know that’s the bell), we moved into Sarf Lundon. Down into Southwark, enjoying National Cycle Route 1 rolling by gentrified warehouses, the pilgrim’s progress continued.
Deptford became Greenwich with a pedal up through the park. Our Greenwich observation was that contactless loo payments would be great if they worked and contribute to park watering when they don’t.
After a quick Lidl sandwich we were soon crossing the M25 again, moving on to the Medway Towns, a sprawl of settlements known for their attractive and tolerant populations and picturesque vistas, as well as a couple of tricky hills.
Ninety miles in Richard introduced a new technical to his cycling repertoire as a London traffic-induced skid came to fruition in a worn-through tyre. Fatigue resulted in a sub-F1-time puncture fix.
Only a couple more lumps now stood between us and Canterbury. With friend Steve conquering the Alps on the same day, they were put into context.
Greeted in Canterbury by Teresa, Max and Tom after a long, often noisy and extremely varied day's riding, tired but ready to press on to Dover and France on the morrow.
As Chaucer
would perhaps have written: “A fainful dayes ridyng taketh us ever nearer to
France and the challenges that lie before.”
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