Canterbury

My landlord owns a boat out in Kent somewhere past Gillingham. Yesterday I went down in the van with him and cycled from the boat to Canterbury and back, 50 miles in all. This was the first big cycle I've done in weather thats a bit too hot for me and I wasn't prepared at all. It was around 25 or 26 but I only had one bottle of water with me and no food.

Just before I got to the town I passed the nicest school I can remember ever seeing

Then I took a turn into the University, which wasnt as spectacular as I thought it would be, but it did have an amazing view over the city.
My friend went to Uni there and worked in this savage restaurant in town called Cafe Maresque that she recommended I go to so I went there for lunch. The owner said I should read this book his friend wrote about cycling from Ireland to Japan, cause I'm obviously in the same league as him

Sitting at lunch I felt my forehead and thought it was covered in dirt but it was actually just salt, I had lost a lot of it so bought a lucozade sport for the journey back but I doubt that would be enough for 20 odd miles. I only had about 3 hours there in total including lunch so didnt get to see everything but did make it out to the oldest church in the English speaking world, walked along the wall, and cycled along the river - have to do the boat ride next time.

On the cycle back I could feel my legs had gone to cement but I just had to push through it otherwise I'd miss my lift home. The next 2 or 3 days were pretty painful on the old legs and so the lesson was learnt - when its that hot drink more. I haven't washed my gloves ever and I've had them nearly 5 years now but they are in a serious need of a wash after that, they absolutely stink

The road that goes up to the left from dunkirk and around a park and down by the university is the best part of the cycle by far

Mary!

Went to pound land and got some cable ties to hook my bike up to the roof and we set off home

On the way home I was in the middle of the minibus and the top 40 from 1965 was getting a bit loud so Claire behind me asked me to ask them up front to turn it down a bit. The girl in the front seat was Irish and I'd been talking to her all weekend.
'Helen...Helen...HELEN!'
Tim beside me: 'her names Mary'
'MARY!'
I didn't care that everyone was laughing at me, I was just glad to be shouting Mary like Lloyd when he crashes his limo.
Sorry Mary, and sorry Helen

Paul dropped us off to Osterley tube station and it was nippy

Still had 6.5k to cycle to get to the district line. Found that out on the way home that you can take a bike on the district line, that would of been handy to know when i first set out cause it cuts out a good bit of the city. Handy to know for the future for going on a cycle out to essex or down to Surrey too. Never been so happy to be back in my own bed in a warm room with a duvet that covers all of me. Got a nice souvenir too that will take pride of place in the hall cause we cant find replacement bulbs for the light there

A little place called Cafe Irie

Someplace warm, where the smoothies flow like wine and beautiful waitresses instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano.
Special mention needs to go to Cafe Irie. Feck the surfing, this is the best reason to go to Newquay. Its just the most chilled out place in the world where we tend to flake out all day long after a surf.

 A coconut in a bird cage on top of the sound system

They even made lucky Luciano a traditional cake for his birthday, which he made a meal of

 Sounds good, I'll have that

We started thinking of other trips I could get going on and started writing a few of them down

One of the surf instructors Mike had an exhibition for his paintings in the Cafe on Saturday night. No charge in and as we were walking up the stairs waitresses handed us plates of finger food to pass around to people upstairs. How laid back can you get when randomers play waiter for the night? A bit of free wine flowing around too and even Alan from The Hangover showed up to help with the tunes

Later that night in Belushi's hot Cafe Irie girl actually talked to me! Oh yeah, like a laser beam, sucked me right in. I was like 'you remember me?' Didn't have time to talk long cause the bouncers were pushing us out, damn if I had a bit longer I could have been whipping out the dumb and dumber quotes non stop.

'You cycled all this way just to eat at Cafe Irie?'
'Well I I wasn't really doing anything. I've come a long way to eat there the least you can do is level with me'

Surfing in February, who are these sick people?

Good morning Newquay!
£64 for two days of lessons, all the gear, two nights accomodation, two breakfasts, an art exhibition, 10% off food and drink in the bar, and meeting 20 odd sound fellow surfers has to be the best deal ever. Yeah conditions weren't exactly ideal but it was good craic all the same. You might look at me and see the messy hair and the baggy clothes and think I might be a proper surfer but in reality I'm just really skinny and too lazy to get a hair cut. The first day was unbearably cold and miserable but the second day I had some great surfing so will most likely be back soon

nice views from room 8

I knew it started with an "S" though

Ummmm scrumpy camping

We're there!

Treyarnon to Newquay: left around 1.05pm arrived around 3.30pm. 19.6k/12 miles, avg speed 12.5kph, max ?

1:33:58 cycling time, I'm a little slow

A little further on and with 3 miles to go I knew where I was. I’d gone for a run up here the last time so knew it wasn’t far and more importantly there weren’t any more massive hills left. What was that feeling creeping up inside of me? Feels like…joy. This felt good. The weather was lovely, my hands weren’t freezing and I’d made it from London to Newquay. OK I’d skipped a tad but it was still something of an achievement, right? I’d miscalculated how much I could cycle a day but like you’ve never made a mistake Mr Perfect! Yeah the cold was unbearable and there were a few low points but I felt grand now and stronger for it. Feeling the muscles in my legs when I tensed them was satisfaction enough. Some people have an instinct that automatically tells them not to do a trip like this. Others might do it but would have to plan everything out first. I have neither of those instincts and that led to some problems but I still made it in one piece. The sign at the hostel said it all

OK not so much “live your life stay in a hostel,” but you know go for an epic cycle, go surfing in Baltic conditions, you’ll probably enjoy it in the end. One more for the things to avoid list: waking up in 30 years and realising I didn’t do enough stupid cycles like this, it was definitely worth it and I still hadn’t gone surfing yet.

Stef had come down early too so I met up with her and had food with a couple of guys she knew. One of them offered me a lift. Oh that pisses me off, that pisses me right off, I’d only just paid for the non-refundable minibus.

Back in Templeogue

After that there was a nice few stretches of flat road and finally I was home. After 4 long days I’d made it all the way back to Templeogue.

Wait hang on a sec, I thought I was going to Newquay? Squint eyes, oh right its Trevelgue. This got me thinking about a cycle around Ireland. Yeah I saw some nice scenery over the last few days, seen some nice places and all but Ireland is just so much nicer. A cycle around Ireland is definitely one for the future.