10 June 2014 (hot and sunny) 62 km

Woke during the night to the sound of shuffling and scratching outside the tent. Couldn’t be bothered checking it out so presume it was a hedgehog or fox. Woken about six to the sound of roaring lions !  Yeah right……….. I hear you say.  But it was.  About a mile down the road in a place called Smarden is a wildlife sanctuary and over recent years they have increased their numbers of big cats, including white lions. Must admit, even from where we were it sounded a lot closer and very fierce. Wouldn’t want to be the neighbours over the fence, you’d be waiting for the day they got loose. How you would sleep I don’t know!

AWallaby at our campsite

By seven the sun was already on the rise and a nice day was looming. Wandered to the toilet block and had a good wash, before back to the tent for a cuppa, some cereal and packing the tent.

Took our time packing as the sun was doing a good job of getting the tent dry (nothing worse than putting a wet tent away, only to have to stop during the day and air it out, if the weather is still good)

By the time we said goodbye to our host, Stewart and his wife, it was 9.30am.

one of the many lovely houses we saw today

Cycled into Smarden, a lovely little village, where Julia sent some stuff she had brought with her, but wasn’t using, back to N.Z. by post.  Asked a postman for directions to the next major town as we needed to skype the kids and he gave us great directions on beautiful quiet lanes into the city of Ashford.  We were hoping for some nice riding today, especially after a shit of a ride yesterday. And so it was. Although we only covered 62km today (Julia swears it was more) the riding for the most part was very pleasant.  

nearly every village has a beautiful church

Normally we avoid cities because of the traffic but Ashford had brilliant well sign-posted cycle lanes and it was an easy ride into the town centre.  Arrived at the major shopping centre in Elwick Square totally stress free and went inside to find a coffee shop with a good enough connection to skype with.  A lot of pubs and coffee shops only allow a limited connection to stop people streaming movies which eat up their broadband, so it’s difficult to find one where we can skype the kids.    We didn’t manage to skype this time either but had enough broadband to update the blog and at least message the kids.

The shopping centre itself was spotless and you could have eaten your food off the floor.  The shops were all of a good quality and it would be a delight to come back and be able to shop.  No chance at the moment when you have to carry all your purchases around for the next two months.  We were both impressed with Ashford.  One of the reasons it may have had a lot of money spent on the town is that it is an international departure/arrival point for Channel tunnel passengers.  But if anyone is looking for a great place to shop that is clean and uncrowded, this would be it.  Ashford also has a massive mall that sells factory labels such as Levis, Paco Robanne, Polo, Yves St Laurent, Nike etc.

The afternoon was just as good as this morning, cycling and weather wise.  Although it was mostly flat this morning, it was more undulating this afternoon, with the odd big climb.  

Pete likes to chat with the locals

As we approached Folkestone, we realised the batteries were draining and we needed something to eat so stopped at Etchinghill for a cold baked bean sandwich and a cup of coffee from our gas stove and a chocolate biscuit.  We had been sweltering up to this point but now we were close to the coast we were getting a seabreeze and cooling right down. A miscalculation as to where we were, took us down a huge hill, only to discover at the bottom we had come the wrong way, which meant cycling on a footpath along a very busy A road for about five minutes before we turned off and were faced with a huge hill overlooking Folkestone. 

The view from here was outstanding and we had a perfect view of all the vehicles being loaded onto the trains for the Channel tunnel.  It is quite an impressive sight to see so many vehicles (a lot of them trucks) being loaded in such an orderly fashion, one train after another seemingly without any break in the process.  There we were, less than half a km away in the countryside on a single lane road with hardly any other traffic, viewing this whole extremely busy, five laned process. 

Lining up for the Channel Tunnel

 Folkestone itself looked to be a very well laid out city from our vantage point on the outlying hills.

We have discovered that ferries are no longer operating from Folkestone and we have to go to Dover to get to France.  Not a big deal as it’s only five miles or so up the road.  We really enjoyed our ride along the cliff tops and it was a great way to cap off our time in England.

Found a campsite in Capel le Ferne which had great showers, beautiful lawns to set the tent up on and within easy striking distance of Dover tomorrow.  So, after setting up the tent we each had showers and then walked about a km to the Lighthouse Inn, overlooking the cliffs and the French coast, on a beautiful clear night for a delicious dinner.

Pete and the white cliffs of Dover

From Pete’s perspective….. coming home to the land of my birth and some great childhood memories, was mixed with a feeling of angst.  Would it be too congested?  Would it be packed full of Eastern Europeans? Would I feel unsafe?  The answer to these questions is a resounding no.  England, as with most other developed countries, is now multi-national.  Yes the cities are busy, but at no time have we felt unsafe on our tour here.  We leave England with very positive feelings and would suggest to anybody thinking of coming here, to get out of the cities and off the A roads to experience the real England.