August 16, 2023
Day 27: Harwich to Witham
Over the Channel overnight
There’s no mucking about getting under way this morning. The ferry is firmly moored to England by the time we walk down to breakfast. (It doesn’t help that I wake Bruce up at 4.30 am English time rather than 5.30, because my phone is confused by time zones. Not me, my phone.)
As soon as we’re done with the full English, they want us off the ferry. So by 6.45am we have untied and loaded the bikes, ridden down the ramp, queued for immigration and border control, and find ourselves on a quiet country road at the start of our ride to London.
Almost immediately, we’re on a bike path with NCN (National Cycle Network) signage. The path doesn’t last terribly long but it’s a promising start. To be honest, we don’t have high hopes of cycling in GB, especially after experiencing the infrastructure just over the Channel. But it’s a beautiful windless morning – easily the best day weather-wise that we’ve struck on this tour. So already, expectations have been exceeded.
Things are going swimmingly though the road segments are a little stressful given the lack of shoulders and the tendency of cars to queue up behind me. I like to pull over to let them pass while Bruce is of the ‘let them wait’ school of cycling. On a gentle rise, he takes off and I pull off the tarseal. Next thing, I topple into a bramble-infested ditch, landing on my back, with my bike lying neatly at the side of the road. It takes a while to release my favourite lycra top from each of the grasping brambles before I can find a tree branch to pull myself up with. Nothing to see here, folks. Let’s move on. Quickly. Bruce has turned back to find me, guessing this is probably not a photo stop. And after removing some more sharp things and applying a plaster, I’m OK. Though keen to find coffee.
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I seem to have lost the Health and Safety portfolio though, which I took on as a result of carrying the first aid kit. Tour Leader quite rightly points out the risks of trying to appease the drivers behind me. Lesson learned.
We find great coffee in the little town of Wivenhoe. In no time at all, we’re in Colchester, today’s half-way point – and it’s not even 10.30. We circle the town, buying lunch at the Cornish Bakehouse, which is a little confusing, and end up in the grounds of Colchester castle. There’s been a fortification here since Roman times but construction began on this castle in 1076. 700 years later, a chap named Charles Gray was given the castle as a wedding gift by his mother-in-law (Bruce wonders what her motivation was) and he took charge of its restoration and the development of its gardens.
The afternoon’s ride is varied. The terrain is rolling. There are long stretches of single-track through woodland, plenty of sealed road, though often in poor condition, bike lanes on busy roads and good unsealed but wide paths well away from roads. We meet up with two young Dutch bike-packers at another café. They were first off the boat this morning, riding lightly loaded gravel bikes, so it was a surprise to see them again. ‘Well done,’ one of them says when we turn up, so perhaps they’re as surprised as we are.
It's not long before we get to Witham, our destination. It’s a busy little town and the White Hart pub is right in the middle of the busyness. It also has the obligatory (male) indoor bar leaners at 2 o’clock on a sunny afternoon, one of whom points out helpfully that Bruce is heading the wrong way if he’s cycling to New Zealand. And he’s happy of course because England have just won their semi-final at the FIFA women’s World Cup. We take things a step further by going outdoors to enjoy our beer and cider.
Afternoon sunshine, a great day’s cycling and a lunchtime Cornish pasty that exceeded expectations. Good job, GB. Let’s see what you can do tomorrow.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,438 km (893 miles)
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