T+26: Canterbury to Bishop's Stortford

Although we had to travel down a bit of the dual-carriageway A2 in the morning, it was signposted for cyclists (but not particularly suitable for them) and not raining. We then went through Faversham, Sittingbourne, Gillingham and Rochester to Gravesend. Most of these places were fairly disappointing and, despite all our searching, did not have a £1.99 map of England. I refused to pay any more than the base price for a road map, so we went without until we could find a supermarket big enough, or a shop cheap enough to provide me with the cartography I required. At Gravesend we found, and just missed, the ferry across the Thames estuary to Tilbury. So we waited for half an hour.

Tilbury is the most awful place I think I've ever been. The only upside is that it has a Favorite Chicken, but even that wasn't enough to make me pause in the town. It's quite well connected to countryside too, but just genuinely awful. Never go there.

We went up near Bulphan on the A128, stopped and ate our snaffled extra breakfasting items from the Youth Hostel, then continued to smash out the miles. There was nowhere we particularly wanted to see in England so just made it our mission to get back as quickly as possible. We therefore flew through Brentwood, Chipping Ongar the Rodings (up the B184) and to Bishop's Stortford where we rode straight past the campsite, out of Essex and into Hertfordshire. So we had to ride a couple of miles back (I hate going back) across the border to the campsite, which was essentially someone's garden near the canal and rammed-packed full of rabbits. England is full of rabbits, they are everywhere. It's very cool.

Bishop's Stortford itself is not as nice as the name suggests. It's got a Waitrose. That's it. Don't bother.

We were pretty wiped-out by the distance but very pleased with our progress and ourselves. The roads in England are definitely much busier and require more management of the bike (use of brakes etc) and concentration. The fact that it hadn't rained at all helped immeasurably and went to show what we could do with good travelling conditions.

This is unrelated really but, looking at the map, I've just noticed a town near Bishop's Stortford named "Matching Tye." Excellent.

T+26 - Canterbury to Bishop's Stortford - 77.18 miles (furthest daily distance)