We awoke to a glorious morning, with the sun shining, ready for the grand departure.
We grabbed all our items and started to load up the trike to see what else was needed. The panniers went on. The sleeping bags nestled snugly in our front cargo net, just above the MSR cooking petrol-fuel holder, aka our portable red bomb. We strapped our little camping stools to the frame and some spare parts were inserted into open frame areas. We gathered up some spares that we might need and the tools that we’ll almost certainly require. Hopefully later rather than sooner. Lastly our small north face bag settled on top of the pannier racks and we covered it with a cargo net to hopefully, maybe, hold it in place.
We had to cut and drill in one last luggage holder between the panniers at the back, and with that we were all set.
With her fully loaded, we gave it a quick wiggle. With it passing this rigorous test, we quickly unloaded everything to get the trike into the van.
Despite us being slightly behind our loose schedule, Louis selected now as the perfect time to trim his beard.
For the van, all 3 wheels had to come off and with some nudging it thankfully fitted in.
Then we were off to the start line.
Huge thanks and shout out to Louis’ parents for housing us and the tricycle workshop these last few days. As well as feeding us deliciously and helping with tools, ideas, pieces of kit and driving! Essential for us getting the mission to take off.
We set off 1-2 hours later than planned and caught a bit of traffic, but our ferry is 10:40am tomorrow (Monday 16th) and we’ve got plenty of time…
We got to Rye, unpacked the trike, put it back together and all the luggage back on. We had a good look for a key Louis misplaced which turned out to be in my jumper, and then we were away in a flash. We waved bye to Mandy & Pepe as we cycled off at a blistering pace.
We turned onto the National Cycle Highway 2, which should take us to Dove, and within 10 minutes we had a problem. There was a gate that was slightly narrower than the trike. I had to get off and open the gate and we jimmied the trike through.
We then cycled maybe another 100m, on rough gravel, and were presented with another gate, with plenty of sheep around it. We weren’t quite sure how to open the gate and not let the sheep out. But, it turned out they scattered as we got a bit closer.
Our reward was more gates. Within the first 700m of our adventure, we had to get off 4 times to open gates and squeeze through, and one narrow bridge that we also had to get off for. Coupled with the gravel path, our average speed wasn’t as rapid as planned.
After this we joined a slightly wider path, the winding nature tested out our steering skills, before then joining a road that we absolutely motored along, relatively.
We flew past the coast but a high sea wall kept us from glimpsing it. Past some kind military base, before we zig zagged through the country lanes. Pretty often the blue NC2 signs were a little hard to see, resulting in a few wrong turns. However, we mostly did alright. Average speed was up around 15-18 mph on flat nice roads.
We then ended up on a slightly narrower bike path again along the Royal Military Canal. Some kind of animal estate the other side of the fence as we saw heaps of deer and a safari jeep. However, we couldn’t sightsee too much as the bike path narrowed and we were taking some brambles to the arms and panniers.
A steady pace took us to Hythe and then onto Folkestone. As we stopped after losing the cycle route in Folkestone, a guy came up to us to ask about the Trike, our journey and all about it. We was pretty enthused and it turned out he wouldn’t the only member of the public to express their love for it today.
We then hit “the wall” as we are calling it. A big meaty climb out of Folkestone, up to the top of the white cliffs of Dover. We got the gears low and pumped it out. It was tough on the steep sections but we made it and that was a big relief, knowing we can make decent hills, even loaded up. After that it was an easy 7 miles flat & downhill to Dover.
We cruised into Dover town, and because it was only 7pm, to try get some food in the town before hitting the ferry terminal. A treat for our great first day before the diet of oats and plain pasta reigns supreme.
With 64 km in the books (40 miles) after setting off at 3:30pm, we were pretty chuffed with day one.
We found a Papa John’s and got a pizza each. Then “DJ” from Nepal who worked in Papa Johns, came to chat to us about the trike and our adventure. A sound guy who’s done a lot of trekking all over the world. He said we could camp in his garden and store our stuff in his garage if they didn’t let us get an earlier ferry.
We then treated ourselves to a waffle, cookie dough and ice cream from the desert place next door. Again, a decadent day 1 treat. We also finally filled our water bottles up in the toilet, as with the rush to leave we ended up starting the trip with 1 litre of water between the two of us. We’ll get better at the planning as the trip goes on.
We decided to head to Dover to try and get on the next ferry at midnight. As we got on the trike to leave we were stopped by 3 groups of people after the other. All wanting to ask about the adventure, the building it, and where we were headed. Seems the trike is a hit! Might take us a while to get through towns if we stop and this carries on.
We got to the ferry port and followed a winding red line that just ended up back at the car customs check lane anyway. Sailed through that and then got to the ferry check in. The woman was slightly confused why we were 12 hours early and that the booking was in the system as 1 bike and 2 people. But she got us on the midnight ferry and told us where the terminal building was to wait a couple hours in the warm and with shops and toilets.
Louis is grabbing some shut eye, while I write this and we charge some items.
A bloody terrific day 1 in the books. Nothing broke, we made good time and were on the ferry. We’ve done 2/3 of our arbitrary daily distance goal and only set off at 3:30pm in the afternoon.
The only downside was Garmin saying I only burnt 1300 active calories on today’s ride. That got Louis and I down about how much we then ate to refuel. We think Garmin is wrong. Haha.
Daily Summary stats: 64 km. 3 hr 26 mins moving time. 341m elevation gain. Max speed 43 km/h.
