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Sunday 6 September 2009

FNRttC (Friday Night Ride To The Coast) Whitstable 4th September 2009

On the 4th of September 2009 I made my way to Hyde Park Corner London for the Midnight Start time where I met up with about another 70 riders from Cycle chat, YACF forums and a few CTC members. Our destination was Whitstable Kent about a 69 mile ride.




We set off making our way past Buckingham Palace down Birdcage Walk onto Parliament Square and out onto the embankment crossing the Thames via London Bridge. We made our way along South of the river up to Woolwich and then onto Dartford, Crayford and past Bluewater. We then passed through Gravesend (which looked so much better in the dark lol).
We continued on until we reached Rochester at about 4am for a bacon buttie and a coffee at Andys Cafe which was much needed after a few hours riding. The Medway looked lovely at this time of night.


We set off again and made our way through Upchurch,Sittingbourne and onto Faversham where we passed the Shepherd Neame Brewery. This will need another trip sometime for a visit when its open.By this time it was dawn and a beautiful sunrise was seen over the Kent countyside.







We passed by loads of orchards and saw hops being picked and harvested. We then stopped briefly at a stone church in Faversham for us all to re-group.

From here we were told it's only 6 miles onto Whitstable and everyone made their way at variable speeds. We passed through Seasalter which bought back loads of memories from my childhood going past The blue Anchor caravan site which has sadly now closed, ontp Joy Lane and left and a downhill stretch into Whitstable for Breakfast at The Waterside Cafe.









After a time we left passing back through Whitstable High Street and onto the station home.
I had trouble staying awake on the train as I had been up for 32 hours and had a total of 87 miles for the day. My best yet.




More photos click here...........

Video here