Skip to main content

Gravel car-parking

Today's run out was a tale of two gravel strewn parking areas/lots.

We'd been out in the morning in the car to see the poppy art installation at Shoeburyness.  When I say "we" I mean Claire,  Reggie and me.

After lunch I hauled Pepé out of the garage and headed to the bank in Hythe to get some cash. Man can't live by credit card alone.

Then I thought of a great photo op. A tribute to British engineering. My Rocket and the WW2 fighter aircraft at the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel le Ferne.

Aaarrghh.

Turning off the paved roadway entrance onto three or even four inches of grey gravel chips is not to be laughed at. Maybe on a cycle but not on a 700lb heavyweight cruiser. Jesus that was scary as the bars went straight to left lock. Luckily I got a foot down!!!

I took a picture (and not the one I wanted) and left.  It's a great cause but that's my lot. I am never going back.

From there I went to the White Cliffs. The car park here is a little light gravel over a  hard surface like tarmac. Shitty getting in where you have to go up about six feet and hairpin into the lower parking. The other tiers are cinder or grass.

At least here to café was open. New outdoor seating and a good tasting tea....

In all I was only out a little over two hours but bid get to put some miles on the clock.

Deep gravel,  not deep joy.

Biker's Tea

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...

Screen fitted

Today I was working from home after the trains were cancelled and I came home from the station!  I did a bit of work, you can only do what is in front of you on the helpdesk software, and so  I had a late lunch and decided to have a look at the screen fittings. In the end, it was a 90 minute lunch and it is fitted. The four brackets have to be done one at a time, offering up the screen each time before tightening them in place. In the end it looks pretty central.  No time to test it today. That will have to wait until the weekend. Fitted! The instructions are pretty rubbish, and look like an eighth generation photocopy of the original drawing. Still, the photo on Skidmarx website was marginally better. My positioning looks a little different but it seems rigid. Only a test ride will tell if it is okay.

Bikers Loft 2

We were up reasonably after a latish night and the self cook dinner! Breakfast is included in the room rate and is also self service as well as self cook. I'm not used to eating breakfast and so opted for the continental style rather than the bacon and eggs style!  The rooms are pretty basic. I shared with Trevor and we had two single beds. A little re-jigging of the room ensured that there was a man-gap between the beds! Early suggestions for the Saturday ride out had been to the Wire of Death. An electric fence that was built by the German occupation army in 1915 from the coast at Knokke to the German border, and just inside the Belgian frontier. It was to stop Belgians escaping into neutral Netherlands.  Over the course of the war it claimed over a 1000 lives. Read more.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_of_Death I can't tell you any more as we didn't go!! In the end we decided on Ypres, only  30 miles aw...