Coast to Coast

To keep myself entertained through the winter and into the spring, I have devised a little project.  The plan is to ride from Coast to Coast in a series of fairly short stages, cunningly designed to be reasonably traffic free and, importantly, to start and finish near a station. This means that I can pick an odd stage on a suitable day, do it, and scuttle home.

So far, I've done two stages, of nine eight, and it's going very nicely.  The start point is Foreness Point, near Margate, and the finish will be Whitesand Bay, near St Davids.  The first stage took me to the Dog and Bear, Lenham, a good pub with a CTC Winged Wheel, and I enjoyed a very good lunch of local pigeon before hopping back on the train.

The second stage is Lenham to home, and, again, a very good day out.  Bits of the Pilgrims Way, but all of the wet stretches missed.  The lanes were still pretty mucky, but a very enjoyable ride.  

The stages are:

Margate to Lenham

Lenham to Carshalton

Carshalton to Reading

Reading to Marlborough

Marlborough to the Severn Bridge

The Land of my Fathers

429 miles all told, between 50 and 60 miles a day.

I'm using e-bikes for the trip, and they're working very well.  Lenham to Carshalton, 59 miles and 3700 ft of ascent left me with 55% of the battery of my Cannondale, so I don't think that range is going to be an issue.  Further west, as spring comes along, I'll probably double up on the stages and will carry a bit of luggage.  Not much, of course, as I'll only ride on sunny days...  Perfect touring, really - at least, I hope so.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Mark