Ride report East Sussex & Kent trip from Holland

Cloggy · Sep 13, 2011

Finally got the routes finished on mapsource about 1900 on thursday evening,

On Friday morning I set off to meet Ronald at a local petrol station about 5 minutes late, luckily he wasn't too annoyed as he had turned up slightly late as well.
We had a lot of traffic around Amsterdam, so we just filtered through.

We met up with Tim & Frank at Hazeldonk West (on the Dutch/Belgium border) at the delicafe. We took the time to admire Tims new bike a GS1200.

I used a Throttle jockey (well something similar) to stop me getting cramp on the 4 hour ride to calais and I was well impressed.

At Calais we rode on to the ferry, after only a short wait.

On the ferry We rode our bikes into a sort of gully, which had a strap on each side which was attached to the bike by a guy from sea France, whilst you stayed sat on it. This seemed a good system but the bike placed between Tim and my bikes was not tightened down securely but luckily the owner noticed this and called back the man who strapped it down.

Well we started as we meant to go on, a healthy meal, well I had sausage and chips :BLAA:.

As we approached Dover we couldn't see anything as it was shrouded in a layer of mist.
We had to wait about 10 minutes for Mike to arrive as he was coming from Swindon and had been held up in traffic, as he had taken the scenic coastal route.
When he arrived we went up the hill to see the castle but we couldn't see anything through the mist, so we just carried on to Deal by which time it had cleared up.

We took a short walk to Walmer Castle from the car park, the former residence of the Duke of Wellington.

and then rode on to Deal castle.

took a ride around Sandwich, Richborough castle. I also did a bit of reminiscing taking a look at the now closed RAF Ash which is now a secure server site, we were politely told not to take any photos and to move on.
We also visited the old house I used to rent, in Ramsgate.

We then rode Via RAF Manston, unfortunately the spitfire and Hurricane memorial was shut. .

We then headed to Canterbury. Got parked up at Kipps Hostel in Canterbury, It was a very friendly, comfortable and cheap hostel, although we had a parking spot when we arrived but on Saturday we had to use the street parking.
After this we got freshened up and then went into town.

We went for the traditional British food, curry.:thumbup:

after a few drinks we headed back, hoping that the local pub would be still opened but alas, twas England, where the pubs shut early, so we just went to bed.

I'll post somemore tomorrow......

Cloggy · Sep 13, 2011

Next day we left the B&B at 0900 and went to the solo cafe for a full English. Ideally placed and good food, just have to take it easy on the gravel car park.

Then we left on the route, I must remember to make my routes in 2 parts, if the way there crosses the way back. When I tried recalculating the route on my zumo instead of continuining the route it took the way home .

We rode on to Battle, where we stopped for a drink, this is the site of the battle of hastings and the abbey which was later built there.

.
After this we tried to take a look at Herstmonceux castle, but you couldn't see it from the entrance and we weren't going to pay.

We rode on to eastbourne and took a cruise down the seafront, and took a short look by the wish tower.

We then rode to beachy head, where there was a spectacular view of the lighthouse and cliffs.

We had an ice cream here, After this we rode past the seven sisters country park on our way to seaford.

We continued the route up to Wessons cafe, just before we arrived it started to rain. It was a cafe with a verander at the front and a bike shop at the rear. We had a healthy meal yet again (burger and chips)

.

Anyway the last 30 miles were really wet, by the time we arrived at Leeds castle nobody wanted to bother take a look (as it was only accessable via a footpath)., but simply head for home. On the way back we stopped briefly at the castle
in canterbury.

arrived back at the B&B at about 1930, so we hung up our wet stuff in the laundry room, freshened up and went into town. This time we took a walk around the floodlit cathederal.

We then went for a pub meal which was unfortunately not that great but luckily the company made up for the bad food.

After this we went to a stratigically placed pub for a few more beers, and to watch the world go by.

Cloggy · Sep 13, 2011

The next day we had a continental breakfast in the Hostel at about 0900.

After this we left on our scenic route to Rye. Most of the way there it was dry but for about the last 10 minutes it started to drizzle.

We went to the quay cafe in Rye, whilst we had yet another fry up the heavens opened, but when we were finished with our meal the rain had stopped :cheer:

Afterwards we followed the old military canal for a while and then onto some back roads heading towards Dover. We were running a bit behind on schedule so we took the direct route to Dover via the M20.

As we arrived in Dover we had just less than an hour before the boat would leave, so we first refeuled and then I headed off with Tim to the nearest supermarket I knew (on the outskirts of Dover). Here he had a few minutes to do a mad dash around the place before heading back to the port (the latest time for checking in is 30 minutes before departure).
Whilst Tim was doing his shopping I returned to Ronald and Frank at the port, whilst waiting for Tim we saw this Polish Fz6 with a very nice carbon look on the fairing:

spock · Sep 13, 2011

Really cool pictures!

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Makes me feel envious of people that can do multidays trips :spank:

Cloggy · Sep 13, 2011

spock said:
Really cool pictures!

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Makes me feel envious of people that can do multidays trips :spank:

I'm Lucky that my loving wife lets me go for 2 long weekends a year :rockon:

Drinky · Sep 21, 2011

I only have a few phone pics (pretty good phone though), but where can I upload em??
and, where are frank's pics. and ronald's?
oh and btw, I look like **** on those pics lol.

Cloggy · Sep 21, 2011

Tim, I uploaded my photo's here. I have a copy of Ronald's photo's but I'll upload them later :thumbup:

mxgolf · Sep 21, 2011

Thanks for the pictures and ride report. It's always fun to ride. :thumbup:

Humperdinkel · Sep 21, 2011

Awesome pics mate & a fantastic report :thumbup: RAF Manston , well more the Spitfire & Hurricane Museum are on my bucket list , such a shame it was closed for you

Cloggy · Sep 22, 2011

Humperdinkel said:
Awesome pics mate & a fantastic report :thumbup: RAF Manston , well more the Spitfire & Hurricane Museum are on my bucket list , such a shame it was closed for you

Well although I worked at RAF Ash (over 15 years ago now

), RAF Manston was our "mother" unit, I think the other guys got a bit tired of Mike and me talking about the good ol days

Although based at Ash We used to (among other things) service the ground to air radio's at Manston. The spitfire and Hurricane memorial museum is a small museum about Manston in the second world war, with of course a Spitfire & hurricane and lots of bits and bobs from that Era. It is free and in the past many veterans used to come and visit it (it was great to chat with these guys).

When we were there Manston used to be a SAR helicopter site for the English channel but I believe that most of this work has now been taken over by our Belgium neighbours.

Unfortunately the airfield is now civilian

Drinky · Sep 26, 2011

later then intended but here they are...........

Drinky · Sep 26, 2011

Drinky · Sep 26, 2011

Erci · Sep 26, 2011

Wow.. some really cool sites there! Thank for sharing!

Cloggy · Sep 26, 2011

Thanks for the pics Tim :thumbup: I added Ronald's photo's to the album as well.

JONAC · Oct 5, 2011

Really sorry to have missed this Martin .... Huge apologies :spank:

I'm heading over to Belgium in 2 weeks to Ypres then down to the Somme and finally Normandy ... A few sites and plenty of fine vino!

Glad you a good trip and hopefully I'll make another FZ6 get together before I'm grey and old ... ok greyer and older!

:thumbup:

Jona

spine · Oct 5, 2011

Absolutely fantastic guys. Sounds like you had an amazing trip. I've very jealous and I'm living in UK!

Gonna make an effort to go down south as the coastal bits look a tad warmer than Blackpool and Southport.:rockon:

Cloggy · Oct 6, 2011

JONAC said:
Really sorry to have missed this Martin .... Huge apologies :spank:

I'm heading over to Belgium in 2 weeks to Ypres then down to the Somme and finally Normandy ... A few sites and plenty of fine vino!

Glad you a good trip and hopefully I'll make another FZ6 get together before I'm grey and old ... ok greyer and older!

:thumbup:

Jona

shame you couldn't make it Jonathan, hope you have a great trip to Belgium/ France, are you taking the bike?

spine said:
Absolutely fantastic guys. Sounds like you had an amazing trip. I've very jealous and I'm living in UK! Gonna make an effort to go down south as the coastal bits look a tad warmer than Blackpool and Southport.:rockon:

Well the route was definately a good one (thanks to lots of help from other members), and the south is definately milder, so maybe you guys can arrange something for next year :thumbup:

Cloggy · Oct 6, 2011

Frank sent me a link to his pics, unfortunately they were too big to upload, so thanks to photoshop I resized them and put them in this album

here are a few of my faves:

Meeting on the Belgium border