27/28 Aug -Margate Weekender

A few years back I organised a weekend road trip to Margate partly based on sustrans recommended roads.

Only Ivan could pedal a 29er for 155 miles

To make up for the cancellation of our french trip this year, myself, Malc C, malc D decided to repeat the event.

Day one involved cycling a twisty  85 mile route across the marsh while day two would be a hillier but more direct 60 mile route inland.

Mother nature was being unkind, as on the Saturday the wind was an easterly while on Sunday the wind was an westerly. This meant two days of unavoidable headwind even if we reversed the routes.

Riding on the main road towards Lydd we were suffering badly as we battered into the coastal winds. . I resigned myself to another 70 miles of misery but thankfully once we reached Lydd the route took us away from the coast and the wind was far easier.

We had all day to get to Margate so treated ourselves to coffee and cake at a fancy tea shop called lathe barn. Ivan thought it was too upmarket for us but I rather liked it (moving up in the world).

lathe barn tea shop (Oh how posh!)

Suitably refreshed we headed on towards Folkstone. Here the wind picked up once again. Having done mostly mtb this summer I was really struggling with the angle of my head relative to the road and was getting terrible neck pain (partly due to wearing spectacles), this was made worse by straining my neck to paint a ceiling a couple of days before.I was the only rider with the route on a GPS but Malc D has an innate sense of direction so I was happy to let Malc navigate through the town. However somehow we ended up going the wrong way down a one way street and only realised when a large van was heading straight towards us. Fortunately van and bikes stopped in time but we received a right ear bashing from 'white van man ' whose favourite word appeared to be w***er

All smiles after climbing out of Dover

There is a really steep climb out of Folkstone before joining a 'secret' C road to  Dover. This runs  directly parallel to the horrible dual carriage way but you would never know it was so near as there is a huge escarpment  between them which blocks out all noise and sights of this traffic hell. The country side around her is amazing and untouched so we barely saw a single car all the way to Dover . There we found a great coffee house where the proprietor really new his coffee (imported directly from Nicaragua) and the food helpings were so generous we had to sit back and allow some digestion before we could face moving on. While waiting I loosened my stem bolts and tilted the hoods up a little. What a difference this made, my neck pain was gone  and did not trouble me from then on.

We now had to climb up that long steep hill that the castle is perched on top of. I really enjoyed this climb as the castle is an awesome thing to look at and was surprised when the others said they had never visited it (best castle in England)

From Dover we criss crossed one way and then another as we followed the traffic free  route. However, this made us feel that we were not getting any closer to Margate. The others were beginning to tire but now free of  neck pain I was actually feeling more energetic. The highlight of this particular section was passing through the village of Sandwhich. There was a carnival/festival going on with a rock and roll band playing in the town center. We really wanted to stay for a few beers and soak up the atmosphere but with 15 miles to go we thought it prudent to continue on.

The roads in Kent are in better condition than east Sussex but this one is the exception

Eventually we arrived at Margate where voice commands from the my android phone in my back pocket successfully directed  us to our hotel.

Margate has a lot of potential but despite fast growing house prices, it is a bit of a dump. After showering we walked along the seafront expecting to find lots of pubs and places to eat (as you do back home) but could only find one pub, a kebab shop and a small restaurant. The pub was good fun, the locals were friendly and it was great to see them enjoying themselves singing karyoke. The restaurant closed early but the kebab shop came to our rescue.

The next day it was time to head home. Despite feeling tired from the Saturday it felt somewhat easier riding home (25 miles less tyhan the saturday) and we even had sufficient energy for  a couple of beers in Rye where yet another festival was taking place.

We really enjoyed this weekend trip. Just staying away for one night makes it feel like a proper holiday. We will do another weekender next year but will give Margate a rest for a couple of years and head to Rochester instead.

Steve C