South London/Kent to the Pas de Calais

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Trickedem

Guru
Location
Kent
I would avoid the B2016 Seven Mile Lane like the plague. It's a very fast narrow road with drivers usually speeding. Not a nice road to cycle on.
I'll second that. One of the nastiest roads in Kent. I did a 500 metre section on a recent ride to cross over it and it was scary
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Ta for the advice, all very useful (I hadn't forgotten the time change).

Three reasons I want to ride through Kent;
(1) I've never done it, apart from a corner of the North Downs
(2) I do like getting some miles in my legs
(3) it feels like more of a pilgrimage that way. As my great-great-grandfather took machine gun bullets at Passchendale, I think a bit of pain on my part is the least I can do in return.

(I'll probably train it back though).

Is it really only another 10k from Calais compared to Dunkerque, because it seems longer on a map? Also, would it not be rather unpleasant from Calais, due to the unfortunate human misery around there?

Edit: I should add I'm virtually in Kent already, if you've ever ridden through West Wickham you've almost certainly passed my house to avoid the lights at The Swan.
I'm in chislehurst myself and have ridden to Paris and Brussels via both Dieppe and Dunkirk

Am off to ride Dunkirk to Ypres in a couple of weeks

For my money, northern France and belgium makes for some fairly uninteresting riding....sorry. But it is exciting to ride on foreign roads and if the wind is down, the flat terrain makes easy riding.

I have blogs for both rides if you take a look in the travelogue section...if that helps.
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Spend some time with Google Maps. Streetview is brilliant for showing you the type of road you'll be riding.
There's no more human misery in Calais than anywhere else - the French authorities have removed The Jungle, through which you wouldn't have ridden anyway.

Here's a route from your place to Dover - take a look at the ascent, 1,100 metres over 80 miles. Have a think about how long that will take you, including mechanicals, lunch stops, etc. Then add four hours, and that's when you'll arrive in Dunkirk.

Here's a route from Calais to the cemetery
and here's a route from Dunkirk to the the cemetery
Not much in it and the final bit's the same anyway.
When I ride from Chislehurst to dover I head to rochester, through longfield and luddesdown...the luddesdown bit is a glorious sweeping valley. Then up one big hill onto the old A2 , dipping into the hop filed roads along the way to avoid the main drag. Push through Canterbury then he's west a little to avoid the dual carrigeway.then downhill into dover.

I have a Garmin route if you would like it.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I know this thread shouldn't really be "how I would ride from West Wickham to Dover", but I can't resist ..

Ahem. How I would ride from West Wickham to Dover. Over the Downs, through Brasted, wee bit of A25, over the Greensand Ridge at Ide Hill (that's all the climbing done) then Tonbridge, Smarden-ish (flatty flat flat) Hythe, Folkestone then the little matter of Capel le Ferne (oops, forgot that climb) and you're there.

A bit hilly at either end. Avoids running parallel to any of the ridges, just gets over them. Ide Hill is the soft underbelly of the Greensand Ridge (unlike Toys, which is the tough old gut). Past Ide Hill you're in the lovely Eden Valley, Tonbridge is easy to get through and then you're into pleasant flat countryside with oast houses, then pan flat marshes, then blam! you're labouring up the hill out of Folkestone, which is over soon enough.
 
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OP
OP
Dec66

Dec66

A gentlemanly pootler, these days
Location
West Wickham
I know this thread shouldn't really be "how I would ride from West Wickham to Dover", but I can't resist ..

Ahem. How I would ride from West Wickham to Dover. Over the Downs, through Brasted, wee bit of A25, over the Greensand Ridge at Ide Hill (that's all the climbing done) then Tonbridge, Smarden-ish (flatty flat flat) Hythe, Folkestone then the little matter of Capel le Ferne (oops, forgot that climb) and you're there.

A bit hilly at either end. Avoids running parallel to any of the ridges, just gets over them. Ide Hill is the soft underbelly of the Greensand Ridge (unlike Toys, which is the tough old gut). Past Ide Hill you're in the lovely Eden Valley, Tonbridge is easy to get through and then you're into pleasant flat countryside with oast houses, then pan flat marshes, then blam! you're labouring up the hill out of Folkestone, which is over soon enough.
You make it sound almost idyllic.

Ide Hill's a bit of a bugger, but nothing I can't handle.

For me, I'd head down Coney Hall and up the bump by The Warren, across through Keston, down through Leaves Green and Biggin Hill to Westerham, A25 to Brasted, then turn where it says "Ide Hill" I guess?
 
OP
OP
Dec66

Dec66

A gentlemanly pootler, these days
Location
West Wickham
When I ride from Chislehurst to dover I head to rochester, through longfield and luddesdown...the luddesdown bit is a glorious sweeping valley. Then up one big hill onto the old A2 , dipping into the hop filed roads along the way to avoid the main drag. Push through Canterbury then he's west a little to avoid the dual carrigeway.then downhill into dover.

I have a Garmin route if you would like it.
Pop the route up, ta. I don't have a Garmin but I think now may be the time to invest.
 

Tin Pot

Guru
You make it sound almost idyllic.

Ide Hill's a bit of a bugger, but nothing I can't handle.

For me, I'd head down Coney Hall and up the bump by The Warren, across through Keston, down through Leaves Green and Biggin Hill to Westerham, A25 to Brasted, then turn where it says "Ide Hill" I guess?

Skip Biggin and ide if you want to save legs, through Orpington then to Sevenoaks.

(But I do the hills)
 
OP
OP
Dec66

Dec66

A gentlemanly pootler, these days
Location
West Wickham
Have you worked out a route to Dover yet?
I'm pondering the ones I've been given, the one through the flatlands sounds good (Marden, Smarden, Tenterden etc) but all suggestions welcome.

Or I might spew it and get the train for £30 from Orpington, see how I feel nearer the time :laugh:
 
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