FNRttC (Friday Night Ride To The Coast) Whitstable 4th September 2009

On the 4th of September 2009 I made my way to Hyde Park Corner London for the Midnight Start time where I met up with about another 70 riders from Cycle chat, YACF forums and a few CTC members. Our destination was Whitstable Kent about a 69 mile ride.




We set off making our way past Buckingham Palace down Birdcage Walk onto Parliament Square and out onto the embankment crossing the Thames via London Bridge. We made our way along South of the river up to Woolwich and then onto Dartford, Crayford and past Bluewater. We then passed through Gravesend (which looked so much better in the dark lol).
We continued on until we reached Rochester at about 4am for a bacon buttie and a coffee at Andys Cafe which was much needed after a few hours riding. The Medway looked lovely at this time of night.


We set off again and made our way through Upchurch,Sittingbourne and onto Faversham where we passed the Shepherd Neame Brewery. This will need another trip sometime for a visit when its open.By this time it was dawn and a beautiful sunrise was seen over the Kent countyside.







We passed by loads of orchards and saw hops being picked and harvested. We then stopped briefly at a stone church in Faversham for us all to re-group.

From here we were told it's only 6 miles onto Whitstable and everyone made their way at variable speeds. We passed through Seasalter which bought back loads of memories from my childhood going past The blue Anchor caravan site which has sadly now closed, ontp Joy Lane and left and a downhill stretch into Whitstable for Breakfast at The Waterside Cafe.









After a time we left passing back through Whitstable High Street and onto the station home.
I had trouble staying awake on the train as I had been up for 32 hours and had a total of 87 miles for the day. My best yet.




More photos click here...........

Video here

Cycle Chat Ride....Tower Bridge to Southend 15th August 2009

This was my first ride with Cycle chat and I wasn't disappointed. I left home and made my way to Tower Bridge for 0900 hours and after a while of searching I found the group. After a coffee we set off down down The commercial Road and made our way down to Canning town and along the Barking Road through East Ham and into Barking.



We then made our way through Dagenham and onto Rainham where we were to have our first break for refreshments. Just before the Rainham marshes the leader and another ride were involved in a collision that resulted in a couple of bruised and cut riders.
Inspecting the damage to the bike



However Topcat1 had damaged his wheel beyond repair and had to walk to the cafe as the rest went on to meet him there. One of the riders rode back with another's wheel so he could ride on to meet us. Along the path to the cafe we skirted along the Thames path where we saw the concrete Thames Barges used during WW2 and a diver made from iron and a peregrine falcon swooping over the Thames.







Sig got her husband to drive over to the cafe so Topcat1 could be driven to Decathlon Lakeside to buy a new wheel so we could continue our journey to Southend. After a hour or so we were of again travelling through Tilbury, Chadwell St Mary ,Linford, Mucking and out onto the five Bells Roundabout and into Basildon and Pitsea.


We then made our way across the very busy Sandler's Farm roundabout and up through Benfleet. This time I managed to get up Bread and Cheese Hill which I was very pleased about :)

From there it was along the A13 and into Leigh On Sea and down onto Southend Sea front for Chips and beer before the train ride home....65 miles for the day :)