Well, what a day.
Setting off at 8am, we really didn't realise what the day had in store for us.
It started reasonably gently, as we crossed the Medway, although the path down to the cycle path along side the M2 was perhaps not the route we were suppose to take !


Soon though we were on an off road cycle track. It wasn't ideal for road bikes !
A few large puddles, lots of gravel, hard rocks, uncomfortable seats, and very slow going.


Trevor had the pleasure of the first puncture of the day, so a few stayed behind as the others pressed on. The cycle tracks became too much though, and we reverted to the main A road to catch up time, and meet with Shaun. So a very slow morning, knowing that we needed to be in Dover for 2.30.

Then the afternoon. Hill after hill, after hill. Some real stinkers ! And time slowly ebbed away. Eventually we missed our ferry by about 15 minutes, on top of which Davy had his first puncture just as we entered Dover.


It didn't matter, we caught the next one, but just got late into Calais, and so late eating and to bed.


We had passed through some lovely countryside, but oh what a tiring day. Everyone exhausted having out in such effort. Even though it was only 57 miles, we had climbed over 3300 feet in the day. More than double what we did in the day previous over 80 miles !

After our first meal in France, we all retired to bed very very weary, looking forward to a much more relaxed day's cycling in France,