Cycling day 1: Canterbury to Hastings (via Dover)

Today’s journey took me along a short section of National Cycle Route 1 in Canterbury to reach Regional Cycle Route 16 to Dover, passing the historic St. Nicholas’s church in Barfrestone (pictured left). I then followed NCR1 again in Dover past the castle (pictured right) for a short while to reach National Cycle Route 2, which I followed all of the way to Hastings, passing through Folkestone, Hythe, across the Romney Marsh, crossing into East Sussex and then through the historic town of Rye, and after a few small places and a climb over Fairlight hill I reached Hastings.

Todays only mishaps were forgetting to zero my odometer before I left from the station (I remembered approximately a mile into the journey), not noticing that the battery had exhausted on my GPS for a few minutes (so there’s a small gap in the trace, but that’s already mapped anyway), and having a spoke break on my bike’s rear wheel as I entered Rye. I couldn’t find a bike shop in Rye, and by the time I reached Hastings they’d all have closed. I’ve now located on online in Hastings so shall pay them a visit tomorrow morning to get a replacement spoke, plus a few spare ones just in case it should happen again. That said, it’s the very first spoke that I’ve had break, so another breaking seems unlikely.

It’s taken a few hours to enter the additional mapping that I gathered today. It’s mainly minor details though, so you probably wouldn’t spot any changes on the map unless I directed you towards them.

Tomorrow’s journey should be a bit more relaxed, continuing to follow NCR2 and finishing at Seaford.