More Brompton Adventures: Brighton to Dover via NCN2

One last adventure for 2021!


Much better than the North Norfolk cycleway.

Lots of sea and interesting sights. Several centuries of military history to take in. Fantastic scenery. Quite a lot of excellent cycle paths. Only a handful of more unpleasant sections.

Bet it gets busy in summer.

Pretty quiet on a stormy weekend at the end of November!

Day 1



Train to Brighton

Massive storm Arwen on Friday night, so waiting few hours

Much dissipated by time it reached south east corner of UK.

Brighton unpleasant as per normal.

Weather wasnt too bad when I got going, only rained heavily once.

Nice cycleway but a few steep hills

Taken the last minute decision not to follow the NCN inland and instead brave the A259 and a climb hovering around 10%. This plan was better when if I had got out of bed early and been on that stretch of road at 8am but it wasnt too bad.

Had lunch at East Dean in really nice cafe.

Then rode round Beachy Head.

Slick road.

Lots of boy racers.

More than one cop car I assume keeping an eye on the boy racers.

Whenever the road headed north was into the teeth of the wind and progress was slow. Surprisingly this was about one quarter of the time. One stretch before Eastbourne was going NNE _and_ up a slight hill. I was grinding away in the lowest gear and hardly moving.

Through Eastbourne without incident and back on NCN2. Hugged the coast right next to the sea for twenty miles without hardly a bump in the profile.

All change at Hastings as climbed a very steep hill. I doubt I could have done it at the start of the day never mind the very end as it peaked at over 13%. I got off and pushed for a while before remounting on a muddy lane. At this point it started to get dark fast so I stopped for some warm water out of my flask and fitted my 'to see by rather than to be seen' lights.

The last seven miles were pretty grim. It was pitch black and the road had the occasional (very careful) car plus a mile and a half descent at up to 16%. No fun in the dark at all. After coming down the hill I was cycling through a pitch black marshy area with what turned out to be the sea defences to one side. To top everything it started to snow. I was shattered, cold and disorientated by this point and had to get off and push up the very short hill to my final destination, the very interesting medieval town of Winchelsea. 

One last push and after ignoring the GPS' demands that I wander off down an unlit muddy back lane, I reached my accomodation for the evening. Warmth!!

Day 2



Bypass Dungeness as pushing onto Dover.

Up and out before breakfast so instant porridge in my room again.

Felt fast and easy with thirty miles of flat coastal cycling.

Mostly on rough paths or the sea wall which were slow, occasionally on roads which were increasingly busy.

Great views of the wind farms and nuclear power station.

Loads of military installations with lots of firing at the rages at Hyde. Loads of old castles and 18th and 19th century forts. 

Flat run couldn't last forever and after Folkestone I started to climb for over 2 miles at up to 13%. Again I had to resort to pushing the bike for a short distance before the long downhill into Dover. One last surprise - the Battle of Britain memorial which I had a quick look at.

Finally, down the hill into Dover, passing the service tunnels running under the Chanel. 

Got to the station and was reminded of how much better it is to use trainline - the £10.40 ticket I could have bought online two days before was now £23. Ah well. Lunch at Greggs before slowly making my way back to London. Quick change (3 minutes to lug the Brompton up and down the stairs) at London Bridge and I was on my way home. 













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