A Pilgrim's Tale

The key to a successful ride along Pilgrims' Way is the weather.  You need a long dry spell, followed by a good, sunny day, as parts of the Way will become impassably muddy with heavy rain and others dangerously slippery with even a short shower.  We were lucky enough to enjoy perfect conditions.

Rolling out of the Caterham Day Centre just after eleven we were soon enjoying the sunshine in the Woldingham Valley, and even the short climb up Ganger's Lane.  This is one of the two early diversions in the Way caused by 16th and 17th century landowners obliterating the route to beautify their estates.  Crossing into Kent we had a very short piece of the original surface, a harbinger of things to come, then past the peculiar duck-house at Otford Pond and along to Kemsing, where Brian left us to return home to fulfil domestic commitments.  Interesting bits of history here; Becket is said to have struck the ground with his staff at Otford and caused a spring to rise, and the knights who killed him spent the night at Kemsing on their way to Canterbury.

Here's our full route:

We were now properly on the Pilgrims Way, mostly tarmac lanes rolling through pleasant countryside, with a couple of miles of unsurfaced trackway just before Wrotham.  That strung the peloton out a little, but it did stage our arrival at lunch which turned out to be handy enough, and a help for the kitchen. 

We ate well in the sunshine, but slowly, and we left the pub later than I had intended, which turned out to be significant by tea-time.  Dave and Geoffrey left us here, heading back to London, and Ray Wren joined us to ride the Pilgrims Way as far as Lenham on his mountain bike.  The hard work of the day was now beginning, with a variety of surfaces and some excellent views over the Weald.

The Trials of the Pilgrims began on this stage, with a couple of mechanical mishaps and a minor 'off' for Dave B, which left some quite spectacular bruising.  Bloodied, but unbowed, we pressed on over the Medway at the fine new bridge, and back on to the trackway.  There's an interesting piece of trackway here where the surface is exactly the same as the track over the Mount, at Guildford, some fifty miles away.

The novelty of riding fast on rough surfaces was beginning to wear off as we approached Lenham, and, as another mechanical delayed us an advanced party set off to try to catch the tea rooms.  No luck; they were shutting as we arrived.  

Neil set off home from here, the rest of us enjoyed cakes, flapjacks and sugary drinks in the sunny village square.  That worked out quite well, and got back a little time. Ray Wren set off ahead of us, knowing that his mountain bike would be slower on the tarmac, and decided in the end to take a train back from Charing.  The rest of us rode hard, and very fast, over rolling countryside to Chartham, where we picked up the Great Stour Trail on a beautiful Spring evening for three long miles into Canterbury.  'Irish Miles', said Hans. The gravel of the riverside track now seemed laughably easy, and we set a very fast pace along the river and into the City.

We arrived at twenty past seven, about an hour later than planned, so Hans, Ged, Mike and Dave scooted off for the next train; the rest of us went to 'The Foundry', a well-recommended micro-brewery where the beer and the pies were exactly what we needed.

Here are the performance stats:

A pretty good showing.  Our speed on the gravel sections went up as the day went on - there's undoubtedly a knack to it.  As for the bikes, there wasn't much to choose between them.  Ray's mountain bike might have been a bit better on the trackway, but not markedly so; the light carbon jobs were quicker on the road, but again, not markedly so.  For this sort of mixed route it didn't seem to matter what type of bike you used.  Mike's tubeless tyres turned up trumps, sealing an improbably large cut; most people had no trouble at all.

My thanks to Simon for his sterling work as back marker, to all corner markers who kept us rolling, to Geoff and Simon for the photographs and to all of you for your help and cheerfulness on a long day.  We did well.

Carpe Diem, as they say.  We did.

Mark