Meet: We're having 2 meeting places for this ride. Take your pick, we should all end up on the same train.

  1  Lewisham Station map ticket office at 08:40 for the 09:09 train to Rochester which should arrive at 10:01.Important - there are two ticket offices at Lewisham, one for the DLR and one for National Rail. You want the National Rail, the furthest back at the top of the hill. Meet Paul here - 07957 209 322

  2  London Bridge Station map ticket office at 08:35 for the 09:00 train to Rochester which should arrive at 10:01. Meet Ian here - 07986 872 205

Distance: 60ish miles

Phone: Ian - 07986 872 205

This ride begins at Rochester following route 1 along the estuary and then loops around the Isle of Sheppey before returning to Rochester. Dinner will probably be somwhere in Sheerness. Once we reach Sheppey it will be a bit of an explore. At the moment (Monday) the weather looks good so it may be possible to spend time on the beach.

Anyone wanting to do only half the ride will be able to get a train back from Sheerness on Sheppey.

This will be an all day medium paced ride and will include sections of Sustrans Route 1 which should make it suitable for most bikes except racey road bikes.

Report

There were 2 meeting places for this ride London Bridge and Lewisham; 12 got on at London Bridge, 5 at Lewisham, 1at Blackheath, 1 at Dartford and Steve recruited a family of 3 on the train. Our family of 3 left us as soon as we arrived at Rochester opting for the ride back into London. So there were 19 of us who were and are:

Paul, David, Cathy, Jonathon, Peter, Steve, Tim, Viviane, Leigh, Gary, Stephen, Anthony, Alan, Ian, Colin, Robert, Tikrit, Jim and Helen.

The weather was great, not a cloud and in the sky, a day everyone had been waiting for.

Only a couple of miles out of Rochester and we hit mechanical problems on 3 bikes. A crank had loosened on Viviane’s bike, a tyre was bulging on Helen’s (no spare inner tube) and Jim had a puncture. We didn’t have a hex spanner that would fit the recessed nut in the crank on Viviane’s bike so Paul, Viviane and Helen went back to Kings Cycles in Rochester to get the problems sorted out. Farther up the road Jim had mended his puncture with the help of Steve, so the rest of us made our way to a river side café on The Strand. The weather was warm so everyone was content to sit outside and have a coffee while we waited for Paul’s invalids to catch us up. We just had time to finish our coffee and they were back with us, crank tightened, tool purchased and inner tube purchased.

The stretch of cycle path along the Saxon Shore Way between The Strand and Bloors Wharf is one of my favourites, the muddy marshes, birds a plenty, and the ugly Kingsnorth Power Station on the Hoo Peninsula providing great contrasting views – it’s always nice to be away from the cars.

Back on the road and we had a separation despite the little talk I gave at the railway station about waiting when we got to a turn if there was no one behind you. A little reorganisation, Robert volunteered as back marker and the whole group waited at turns until Robert appeared. No more problems with separations. There were only 2 more turns on the way to Sheppey.

Our route went through Upchurch and Lower Hal stow with great views out over the estuary. The new bridge over The Swale onto Sheppey isn’t finished yet. The woman working at the café on The Strand said it was behind schedule due to bad weather. It looks close to completion and apparently there had been an open day last weekend when they let everyone walk over it. The road up to Sheerness is dire at the moment for cycling with heavy traffic passing you within inches for the entire 4 mile stretch. Occasionally, someone shouts from a passing car that we should get licenses – the logic escapes me – and they are gone with no opportunity to talk the issue over. There are signs that a cycle path is being built adjacent to the road but I expect it is of low priority compared to the new road and bridge. It will be interesting to see how much longer that takes to be completed.

We detoured through Queensborough before entering Sheerness by the old walled Blue Town dock area. Just past Blue Town was Tesco where we had decided to buy lunch, sandwiches etc and eat it on the beach. The reasoning was our numbers would overload the capabilities of any pub and restaurant and hey, it’s a great day for being outside.

Somewhere out in that estuary is a sunken ammunition ship with enough TNT to devastate Sheerness if the decks collapse and it goes up. The beach was quiet but there were a lot of sailing vessels out in the estuary or is it the sea here - Southend is directly opposite.

Dinner over, paddling done, stones collected Anthony left us to return to London and we on our way along the nice shore-side cycle path to Minster. More gremlins, Steve’s mudguard came off, Paul lost a tool and returned to Sheerness to unsuccessfully look for it. Steve left us to return to London. From Minster we made our way diagonally across the island to the Ferry Inn on an area of Sheppey called the Isle of Harty. We relaxed in the sunshine again and another hour slipped by. Directly over The Swale was Faversham but is hidden by trees and the large town opposite and to our left is Whitstable. Obviously at some time in the past there was a ferry crossing at this point, the jetty still goes out into The Swale. It would be nice if there was one here again as an alternative way off the island for walkers and cyclists.

Paul, Robert and Tim opted to split from the ride for a quick ride back to Rochester – pressing appointments in London – thanks guys for your marshalling and fixing.

It was 5 o’clock and the 14 of us that were left made our way on the busy 223, another route that needs a cycle path back to the bridge. Stephen left us at the turn off for Queensborough to get the train from there and the over the bridge David and Helen left us to head for Sittingbourne to get the train there.

The eleven us that were left made our way back the way we had come to Rochester. The cooler evening conditions made the cycling very comfortable. One more puncture, mended very quickly, and we were back at Rochester Station at 19:15 for the 19:25 back to London.

A great day, despite the gremlins – thank you everyone for coming.

I took a lot of photos, about 150; expect some of them on the web site Tuesday or Wednesday.

Ian Pendleton

Lewisham Cyclists