July 31, 2013
Crawley to Newhaven
At the appointed hour of 2.30pm we were at the dentist, and a very fancy dentist it was indeed (it even had a padded back to the toilet, lovely orchids and they made me very good coffee while I waited for Ken). He emerged a new man, extremely pleased with the attention he got and was able to eat something for dinner. We may not have seen Buckingham Palace or The National Gallery but what we do have now is an indepth knowledge of Crawley on a wet day.
Today was the day of reckoning and I must say I didn’t come out of it covered in glory. We had decided that we would have a short first day to just ease into things. One little problem when I calculated the distance between Crawley and Newhaven I forgot that the British use miles not kilometers to quote distance. About 50km had sounded a good easy first day. Oh that was not what it turned out to be.
We hardly slept. I went through every diabolical thing that had ever happened on a bike tour, in particular all the disasters that had dogged day one of our tours. Up at 5.30am, had breakfast and packed and down to get the bikes to load. Obviously we didn’t look as if we should be staying at this hotel as when I was going up to the room to get something I had left behind I was accosted by one of the staff who said “Only guests are allowed up to the rooms” Clearly cycle gear is not in their dress code!
It was wonderful to be sailing along on the bikes with the euphoria of a fantastic trip ahead of us. It was 7am, we had the day ahead of us, our rain jackets are very efficient and the route is miraculously well marked, life is good. It is a surprisingly hilly route out of Crawley on the way to Brighton but at the start I attacked the hills with vigor. We didn’t get lost once but I am afraid the route had some extremely difficult parts with lots of steps, always a challenge with a touring bikes. The rain really was very light and the forecast said it would clear later in the day. I was fading and near the top of another hill I saw a particularly appealing slab of dirty concrete in a work site, I would stop here. It was bliss and after about 10minutes I had recovered enough to continue. We pushed our bikes and miracle of miracles around the next corner was a garage and they sold FANTA. Everyone should know that fanta is a life giving fluid that means instant revival for exhausted cyclists. About this stage we realized our mile/kilometer mistake.
Sailing into Brighton is wonderful. The bike paths are perfectly marked and it is all downhill and beautiful even in the rain. We came to Preston Park where there is a café in an old bank rotunda. They were some of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten, freshly made, on grainy bread and with loads of crisp salad. Being school holidays Brighton looked full. It is a lovely place to walk through, the Pavillon is of course magnificent and you can see how really magical it must have been in Victorian times. Down by the water people were piling onto the Pier. Along the shore there is the most magnificent iron “lace” I loved it. The ‘seaside’ here is a completely different experience of the beach in New Zealand.
We were now on National Cycle Way 2 which runs close to the coast. As we speed above the white cliffs we had a fantastic tail wind that helped iron out the bumps for us. It is only about 16 miles (would have been better if it was kilometers) to Newhaven from here, after a last steep hill on a very bumpy track we were in Newhaven. We called in at the port and bought our tickets for the 10am sailing tomorrow and found our hotel. A Premier Inn suits us better than the elegance of the last 2 nights. A kind and extremely helpful lady on reception stowed our bikes in the laundry room, she seemed to have no problem with our dress code. So here we are in the glory of purple.
Learnings for the day. The British road signs are in miles not kilometers. I am very unfit and should have done more riding before we started. Ken is kind to me and never once said I was ‘pathetic’ although I am sure he thought it. Fata is the best reviver in the world
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Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 74 km (46 miles)
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