England : Kent Summer Cinque Ports Ride 6th Aug & 3rd Sept

[User10571]

South Essex has much to offer - one ~ 40 mile ride which springs to mind starts out from Wickford (train accessible from LST), takes in South Hanningfield, Rettendon, Stow Maries, Cold Norton, Latchington, a diversion to St. Peters on the Wall, before dropping down through Tillingham to cross the marsh at Dengie by private road - if you thought Romney Marsh was duelling banjos country, I give you Dengie. Flat, flat, flat and big, big skies. Ending up in Burnham-on-Crouch where there are a couple of options for refreshment, before calling the on-demand ferry to cross the Crouch to Wallasea Island and ~10 or so mile ride to Southend where we are spoilt for choice for trains back to The Wen. It'd be worth extending the ride by a couple of miles, to include God's Own Road, aka Lower Stock Road, which if you've never ridden it, you've a delight to look forward to.
I appreciate that such a ride may have logistic challenges for those who aren't Londres based.

Actually, rather than forward planning, I came on here to ask a favour and then digressed. As is the way.
Does anyone have a gps track of yesterday's ride (TC1 I'm looking at you!) as I'm curious as to what our bunch of 3 did to get back in to Ashford - and I'm struggling to decipher it from Stephen Piper's Strava track - not enough detail - or I don't have the knowledge of how to view it in more detail. Muppet.

ETA - Doubtless Diggs may have something to add to this as it is his neck of the woods.....

 

[Salty seadog]

Can't do tomorrow but I will be out on Wednesday if that's any good to you.

I hope so, I'd have to confirm Tues night Wed morning, sorry to be so unreliable.

 

[StuAff]

South Essex has much to offer - one ~ 40 mile ride which springs to mind starts out from Wickford (train accessible from LST), takes in South Hanningfield, Rettendon, Stow Maries, Cold Norton, Latchington, a diversion to St. Peters on the Wall, before dropping down through Tillingham to cross the marsh at Dengie by private road - if you thought Romney Marsh was duelling banjos country, I give you Dengie. Flat, flat, flat and big, big skies. Ending up in Burnham-on-Crouch where there are a couple of options for refreshment, before calling the on-demand ferry to cross the Crouch to Wallasea Island and ~10 or so mile ride to Southend where we are spoilt for choice for trains back to The Wen. It'd be worth extending the ride by a couple of miles, to include God's Own Road, aka Lower Stock Road, which if you've never ridden it, you've a delight to look forward to.
I appreciate that such a ride may have logistic challenges for those travelling from further afield.

Actually, rather than forward planning, I came on here to ask a favour and then digressed. As is the way.
Does anyone have a gps track of yesterday's ride (TC1 I'm looking at you!) as I'm curious as to what our bunch of 3 did to get back in to Ashford - and I'm struggling to decipher it from Stephen Piper's Strava track - not enough detail - or I don't have the knowledge of how to view it in more detail. Muppet.

I'm pretty sure (having viewed my own tracks when logged in and out of Strava) that the track shown to non-members is less accurate- when zoomed in, the track is well out from the road much of the time (GPS recording is obviously susceptible to problems with tree cover etc blocking satellite reception, but the accuracy is out too often for that). Try my Garmin Connect one.

Good ideas for rides there. Have Network Railcard, will get up at ridiculous o'clock and travel (at least on a Saturday, depending on engineering work....).

 

[Hill Wimp]

I hope so, I'd have to confirm Tues night Wed morning, sorry to be so unreliable.

Fine by me. I will certainly be going out as the weather looks to be very good.

 

[Stephen Piper]

Does anyone have a gps track of yesterday's ride (TC1 I'm looking at you!) as I'm curious as to what our bunch of 3 did to get back in to Ashford - and I'm struggling to decipher it from Stephen Piper's Strava track - not enough detail - or I don't have the knowledge of how to view it in more detail. Muppet.

Garmin version of our ride https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1336524818
Heading north out of Appledore, turn right to Kenardington, right again to Warehorne, 2nd left, through Faggs Wood, right and soon left again to Shadoxhurst, Follow ncr18 to Ashford, Bikehike.co.uk works well for different maps types.

 

[User10571]

Garmin version of our ride https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1336524818
Heading north out of Appledore, turn right to Kenardington, right again to Warehorne, 2nd left through Faggs Wood, right and soon left again to Shadoxhurst, Follow ncr18 to Ashford

Star!
Thank you!

ETA - Bikehike fan here on account of its OS content.
J

 

[Diggs]

Some good ideas from @User10571 there. Dengie is pretty much as described. Stow Maries has the only remaining Great War aerodrome and is an excellent place to visit with a little cafe, especially if they have a fly in planned

 

[HertzvanRental]

Some good ideas from @User10571 there. Dengie is pretty much as described. Stow Maries has the only remaining Great War aerodrome and is an excellent place to visit with a little cafe, especially if they have a fly in planned
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Right, @Diggs , we'll wait for your plan!

 

[Lavender Rose]

 

[Stephen Piper]

Some good ideas from @User10571 there. Dengie is pretty much as described. Stow Maries has the only remaining Great War aerodrome and is an excellent place to visit with a little cafe, especially if they have a fly in planned

If back in the Ashford area Headcorn aerodrome has a great museum, cafe and bar where you can watch skydivers.

 

[User10571]

Some good ideas from @User10571 there. Dengie is pretty much as described. Stow Maries has the only remaining Great War aerodrome and is an excellent place to visit with a little cafe, especially if they have a fly in planned
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I'd no idea about the aerodrome at Stow Maries, despite having done the ride at least a dozen times.
Every day is a school day.
Ta.

 

[HertzvanRental]

W'ere slowly talking ourselves into a "Tour of the Home Counties". !!

 

[StuAff]

W'ere slowly talking ourselves into a "Tour of the Home Counties". !!

Some of us do that already.....

 

[hopless500]

We should do a 3 or 4 day tour of the home counties. Pub/b&b destination/camping space options each day, 1 shorter and longer route to choose from to cater for nutters and non-nutters

 

[Tim Hall]

Meanwhile, back at Saturday's ride. That was a lovely day. I cycled over from Beckley, about 20 miles from Ashford, where I'd been staying with friends. Bumped into Stu on the run into Ashford, then milled around drinking coffee and talking nonsense, until it was time to go. A nice genteel pace saw us escape into the country and Romney Marsh, where we stopped by the Royal Military Canal and St Rumwold's Church.

More flat land, with not too many cars and then we were at the seaside, toughing it out into the headwind. Coffee and weather forecast cake (lemon drizzle. Badoom-tish, blame Stu for that one), then I nipped back to look for the Pluto House.

(I reckon Another Ride would be to trace bits of the Pluto route). Into the desert that is Dungeness Nature reserve, where I paused to photograph Derek Jarman's House and Garden,

after which I raced to catch the rest of the bunch. I found User10571, so then we were two. After that it all got a bit Walkabout, although to be fair neither of us look like Jenny Agutter. Questions were asked of Nature Reserve Wardens (2), Small Boy (1) & Bird Watchers (3), all of which agreed some cyclists had passed that way, although it seems that none of these cyclists would answer their phones. We gritted teeth and hooned along the coast road, finally slotting in to the back of the bunch like we'd never been gone as we got to the sea wall at Camber. From there a pleasant spin along the wall, then down onto the cycle track and finally into Rye, where I had a quick pint before nipping back to Beckley for a party.

Thanks @Hill Wimp for setting this up. Thanks everyone else for making it a great day. (For those who don't know, I was the one in the YACF top riding the M Steel fixer)

More pics are here