Dover Durness Day 2: Horndon on the Hill to Great Shelford

Distance today         63 miles in 4hrs 05mins
Height Climbed       2293 feet burning 1613Kcal

Distance so Far       134 Miles  in  9hrs 45mins
Height Climbed      5879 Feet Burning 4063 Kcal


There is nothing quite like a nice straight downhill to get into the swing of things, so it was a lovely surprise and a great start to the day to find a 1:10 downhill just half a mile from the nights accommodation. It was quite early too, well earlier than intended. We were up and fed and ready to go by 8.30 so no point in hanging around, especially as it was sunny.

Essex is nice, but fairly flat and quite samey. Arable and quite a lot of trees, and a bit rolling. Most of the crops are in, so it is mostly ploughed fields.

There was a field of sun flowers looking over the hedge at me which was a surprise.

Dominating today was road works. Generally a "road closed" sign means might be closed to a cyclist. The one yesterday, was passable on the footpath, then down the road dodging the large holes dug for updating the mains.

Today though it was closed. Proper closed. The trench across the road was about 4 feet wide and the man I talked to was up to his chest in it. I thought about taking a run up at it, but maybe not. He told me to take the diversion, but these are often a long way, further than necessary, as they can only divert onto roads of the same class or higher. He said that yes, I would end up on a very busy A road and suggested a different side road. A big hill and a ride on the distgribor roads though Basildon and I was back on course.

Later in the day there was another: This time the whole bridge was missing. The gap was wide and deep and over a electirfied railway line. A look on the map suggested I could get down a lane and across the railway on footpath. It worked. Only getting of the bike to wheel it across the track after obeying the traffic lights for the pedestrian.

The bee has been having a great time. He is enjoying the village signs found in teh center of the villages and having a close look at a few. 

We passed the end of the runway at Stansted. I didn't notice a thing.

Passepartout, drive the other way and said she had planes taking off over the car, at my end nothing. Except these signs, which we decided to strictly disobey

 We also found some nice buildings including some pargeting

 After the rather short day today with its lovely tailwind we are back up to 75 miles. This is all very well but as I am doing 850 miles in 10 days and am well below the average at present you can be sure some longer harder days are on their way. Lets hope for more tail wind, or at least cross tail.