Meet: London Bridge Station, ticket office at 08:40 for the 09:07 train to Canterbury. map

Distance: 60 miles

Ride up the Crab and Winkle Way to Whitstable and then join the Viking Coastal Trail and ride along the coast through Herne Bay, pass Reculver, go through Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate before turning inland at Sandwich and returning to Canterbury along quiet Kent country Lanes.

We've done this ride before. Check out the report and photographs from last years ride and the photographs from Craig's Canterbury 5 Churches ride earlier this year.

Pub lunch

All day medium paced ride. Suitable for all bikes except racers.

Report

There were only 3 of us on the ride today, kind of a shame because this is one of my favourite routes, full of contrasts, woods, coast, bays, lanes great views, historical places and quiet traffic free riding.

Cathy met me at London Bridge and Karen joined us at Canterbury. Canterbury is the only station I know of with a cycle shop on the platform. Downland Cycles was closed today – I imagine they were concentrating their efforts on the Tour of Britain which was finishing in town today.

As we headed out of Canterbury a light five minute shower had Cathy and Karen reaching for their waterproofs. Although the sky looked very grey – no sunshine all day – rain never really threatened our enjoyment, the wind however was another matter. The forecast was for 35 miles an hour gales which would probably be a problem when we reached the exposed coastline.

The Crab and Winkle Way, a disused railway, converted to a cycling/walking facility takes us on a good hard packed surface from Canterbury to Whitstable passing through Clowes Wood. Cathy and I both with no suspension, narrow slick shod bikes had no problems with any of the off road paths today.

We had a chocolate stop at Whitstable and before getting onto the coastal path that we would follow for the next 27 miles. The strong winds that were productively spinning the turbine blades of the wind farm off shore to the North of Herne Bay were not a problem as we headed east sheltered by the land to our right.

We had a coffee stop on the pier at Herne Bay and then stopped for lunch at the King Ethelbert Inn at Reculver. A well timed stop as the heaviest shower of the day beat down for 20 minutes.

At Minnis Bay, Birchington we found the Viking Trail Bike Hire shop. They have a good selection of clean looking bikes and considering their location, not far from Birchinton Station are a great bet for anyone who wants to take some bikeless friends out cycling for a day around the excellent Viking Coastal Trail route.

Around the headland from Margate the 35 mile an hour wind hit us straight in the face and the ride became a struggle. Our speed dropped from an easy 14 mph to a laboured 8mph.

Karen called it a day at Ramsgate and headed for the train station; the fierce wind had blown away her enjoyment.

I speculated that when we reached Sandwich 7 miles away we would get some respite from the wind as we turned westward and headed back towards Canterbury. Richborough Power Station, was on the horizon as we headed south. This power station was closed after an experiment with a new cheap fuel, Orimulsion, later dubbed the ‘dirtiest fuel in the world’ led to an expensive law suit by a local farmer whose crops had failed in the acid rain produced by the plant.

The A266 which goes from Ramsgate to Sandwich and which National Rout 2 runs by the side of is undergoing some serious road works (widening) which combined with how busy the road is made this a very tedious section of the route to ride. We leave the A266 just before entering Sandwich and head through the centre of the Pfizer ‘Valium’ pharmaceutical plant. You can come up with your own puns.

Turning west we left Sandwich and briefly headed north with the ruined Roman Richborough Fort contrasting with the power station now on our right and more importantly the wind was pushing us along. The route back to Canterbury in entirely on quiet lanes which at this time of the year are lined with fruit laden orchards of pears, apples and something blue, the size of a golf ball. For some reason there was a lot of this blue fruit all over the lanes as well as on the trees.

It’s easy to underestimate how quiet the lanes are between Sandwich and Canterbury. In the 16 miles we rode between the 2 towns I counted 5 vehicles that passed us and eight that were going in the opposite direction (no doubt they were returning from Canterbury after having a good day watching the cycle racing).

We arrive back in Canterbury at 18:10. The next train wasn’t until 18:50 so we enjoyed a quiet drink in The Unicorn PH around the corner from the station.

Cathy and Karen thanks for coming and making it a good day.

58 miles.

Ian Pendleton