We had 3 options of getting back to Bournemouth. One was to catch the train to London then scramble across London to catch another train to Bournemouth. We both dismissed this, not wanting to go to London,

The second option was to buy a van. We had a couple lined up to look at. One was a campervan but the speedo didn’t work, a common problem with Renaults, so we dismissed that one. The other van was only available to view in the evening and we didn’t want to hang around Dover.

The third option was to cycle back or at least part of the way. So that’s what we chose.

It was a beautiful day when we left Dover, but first there was a massive hill to climb. We both really struggled only having done flat riding for the last couple of months.

We arrived in Folkestone which is on coast and had a look around. There were a bunch of food trucks on the pier and we chose the Greek bus. It was a beautiful day and we couldn’t figure out where everyone was. In my opinion, Folkestone is so much nicer than any of those high rise Belgium resorts.

We had an amazing ride today with a great tail wind. And the scenery was much nicer than the last few days in Belgium. We cycled through forest paths and even past a wildlife park. We saw antelope, bison and a couple of giraffes! That was the highlight of my day.

Then we zoomed along the narrow country roads at 22 kms/hr loving the tail wind and country scenery.

In the afternoon it got harder. The wind shifted and became a head wind and the scenery not so nice. Then the massive rain clouds over by the coast had us a bit worried. There was no camping on the route today so we headed for the train station at Rye. It was 5.30pm and we’d had enough riding for the day.

We decided to catch the train to Eastbourne but the next one was cancelled so we booked the 6.50pm one. Then we booked a hotel in Eastbourne just to be sure we had a bed.