Barnet to Broadstairs - day 3 - starting back

After a lovely rest day, we were good to go for the return journey. There had been a little more consideration of the route and we thought that we would do 40/40/20 miles to get back as neither of us had anything in particular to do on Saturday morning. My co-director was coming down for the day, as we are all friends in common, so we thought we would wait to see her, have a nice cup of tea in the garden and then set off. Thus we departed by 11:30, destination Sittingbourne, our latest start.

This was a route we thought we could easily manage. Only 43 miles, pretty flat, sea views most of the way. I had a bit of trouble confirming the Holiday Inn booking in Steve's name but it turned out he had been emailed a confirmation, I don't like heading somewhere without proof I have a bed for the night, he just overlooked it at first.

We had plenty of time for photographs

The Turner Contemporary gallery is free to enter, you just need to book a slot, so get yourselves down to Margate.

It was an absolute delight to cycle along the sea wall (there are a few sections with beach huts where you have to walk but it isn't a big deal)

This is the approach from the east to Reculver Castle, if we had found this path from the other way Steve would have made it as it is all flat from here to Broadstairs.

After a cup of tea at Reculver

and the banana our friends in Broadstairs gave us along with an apple to keep us fuelled, we pedalled lazily on. Soon we were in Herne Bay.

The bench called out to be stood on rather than sat down. I'm sporting my fancy new shirt.

Onwards to Whitstable, lunch time. A quick lap of the town and I spotted the Whitstable Produce Store which looked appealing and now has a gazebo in the garden with tables and chairs in sun or shade and room for the bikes so no need to lock them up.

Sandwiches were ordered and I snook a cheesecake on the top of Steve's food order but if I had seen the size of the sandwich I might not have. He did enjoy it though and was going to get through the day easily with all that fuel on board. My sandwich was apple, stilton and walnut. Proper bread and just an absolutely lovely sandwich.

Entering Faversham via a boatyard, because we overshot the official route as a lady and her dog were coming out of it, but you can't go wrong when a river stops you doing so, I couldn't resist taking this photo of juxtaposed new and old boats. There was a lot of work to do in that boatyard.

The old parts of Faversham are a treasure.

This is a good idea. No excuse for not picking up after your dog.

We pedalled on and before long we reached the Holiday Inn Express at Sittingbourne. The main entrance is now round the back so the bikes are out of sight from the road and almost certainly within the scope of the hotel's security cameras. Even so I take no chances and the bikes were d-locked together and both sets of wheels chained through and around the metal supports of the fire escape. It isn't that my bike is intrinsically valuable but that it is valuable as my means of transport the next day.

Never got around to photographing the room but did take this snap outside the freehouse which is The George (trading since 1652) in the High Street

We were too busy chatting to the landlord, who was having a quiet day and intermittently watching the cricket, to remember to ask him what the stone represented. My Guess is that it is a record of where flood waters reached once but I could be way off track. Please do put me right. We also chatted to a man having a crafty pint whilst collecting his takeaway pizza from the shop opposite, he was going to tell his wife there had been a bit of a queue.

That just left the question of dinner. The hotel did dinner but it was standard fare and we like to spread our custom round the town. After walking up and down the High Street and not being attracted by any menu I turned to the phone and found Galata. It was a little over half full and buzzing, with customers looking really happy and well fed and watered.

Not what we had but representative. Top quality, fresh and fair prices.

Thus the day came to an end, well almost, one final beer in the hotel bar when we got back. A bottle of Bishops Finger for me, a local Shepherd Neame ale, 5.4% strong and enough to put me straight to sleep on top of the earlier couple of pints of Doom Bar and a large Rioja. In my view, you can eat and drink pretty much what you like when you are cycling 50 miles a day.

Thursday came and went without any unfortunate events and was a truly wonderful day of cycling. Feel free to repeat my journey.

Derek