London to Paris in a Weekend

London to Paris

The route from London to Paris is something of pilgrimage amongst velocipedes in England. Numerous charities offer eager participants the "life changing" opportunity to make the trip in return for a pledge to raise bags of money. A lot of attention has been paid to the route itself, dubbed the Avenue Verte, and it has been held up as a model for ideal continental cycle touring.

Having lived in London for almost 9 months now, I was keen to test the route for myself. so last weekend my friend Cameron Bellamy (of Ubunye Challenge fame) and I set off from Greenwich, London and headed for the coast. Our plan was basic to the extreme: 

• Get to the English coast at Newhaven by 11pm on Saturday for a pre-booked ferry crossing. 
• Sleep on the ferry. 
• Leave Dieppe on arrival and be in Paris by 11pm on Sunday for our pre-booked bus ride back to London. 
• Sleep on the bus. 
• Arrive in London at 06h30 on Monday and go to work.

We left Greenwich at about 09h30 on Saturday, with minimal baggage, a gps-enabled phone and our credit cards. I rode my Raleigh Royal Tourer, while Cam chose a restored single speed. Riding a single speed was always going to be a gamble for a trip like this. We had no idea of the distance ahead of us, let alone the terrain! 

Cam and the Grey Goose

HMS Donkey

Saturday's ride was familiar to us, as we'd enjoyed a past trip to Eastbourne, which is near enough to Newhaven to share many of the country roads through Kent. The landscape is characterised by rolling hills, farm roads lined with eye-level hedges, and scattered villages. 

A highlight was our lunch-break at "The Rock" pub at Chiddingstone Hoath. We learnt over rabbit and pheasant pie, that the pub was built in the 1520's! Kent has a lot of history and some of the towns we passed looked absolutely idyllic. 

The afternoon ride was fairly easy, and made all the better by the segregated bike lane heading into Newhaven. Once in Newhaven we retrieved our ferry tickets and headed to the "Hope Pub" near the harbour mouth.

The Hope Pub served some great ale and good food, none of which was allowed to be shared with Pip, the pub dog. The signs were everywhere: "Please do not feed Pip the Pub Dog". Any assumptions that Pip was a small innocuous pooch with a penchant for greasy food were quickly eradicated when Pip himself lumbered into view. This was a hound of note! 

We had some time to spare at Newhaven, so we tucked into (probably) more than our share of ale! To be fair, we truly felt like the proverbial weary travellers and needed to fortify ourselves against the unpleasantness of sleeping on the ferry...

Total distance: 113km

The ferry trip was relatively quick (4 hours), and we docked at Dieppe at 3am UK time (4am local time). It was dark and rainy, the sleep we had was pretty poor, and the beers were still making their presence felt as we found our bearings and headed for the legendary Avenue Verte...

Admittedly, it took us a while to find the start of a stretch of the Avenue that they call the "Greenway". I had heard magical claims about this stretch of converted railway line, such as: 

1. It used to be a railway line
2. It is completely segregated from all motorised traffic
3. It is tarred, and a minimum of 3 meters wide
4. It is flat for its entire 60 km length 

I am very, very happy to report that all of the above is true. The Greenway is as good as a cycle path gets. The low cloud and rain, hangovers, fatigue and stiff legs could not have dented our spirits as we slipped along this blissful route. For the first time, we were able to ride alongside one another rather than in single file. We could take our eyes off the path long enough to absorb the agricultural scenery. Our speed varied from 23km/h to 29km/h, and we'd managed to notch up 60 km before breakfast.

We stopped to eat a continental buffet breakfast at a hotel in Forges-les-Eaux. The food was less memorable than the driving rain and freezing temperatures! But our spirits were still high. After Forges we managed to lose the Avenue Verte, so we took the highway to the next checkpoint at Gournay-en-Bray.

At Gourney we (miraculously) found the route again and enjoyed another blistering ride into Gisors, where we found a local pattiserie for lunch. The carbs were most welcome and I still remember the taste of the almond croissant I inhaled. By this stage the rain was starting to abate, and our bikes were holding up to the challenge beautifully. Coincidentially, we parked outside a bike shop and our steeds received some admiring glances from the locals! 

On the route between Gisors and Gasny we passed some fellow tourers, decked out in full touring kit and evidently enjoying their time on the road. Cam and I had a little chuckle at their reactions when we said we'd left from Dieppe that morning and expected to leave Paris that night. The conversation was a series of escalating questions: "You left from where? This morning? And where are you staying tonight? Paris? Paris? But you left from Dieppe this morning?"

This part of the route was not segregated from other traffic, but was nevertheless spectacular as it took us past Norman castles, rolling canola fields, majestic chateaux and flowing rivers. There was an endless procession of scenery to admire with very little in the way of potholes or hills to distract us. The mileage racked up effortlessly and before long we'd reached 150km for the day. At this stage we were able to estimate that the rest of the route was well within our limits and this certainly energised us...

As the day wore on and we edged closer to Paris, we joined the segregated cycle route that makes the Avenue Verte such a pleasure. At the satelite town of Pontoisse, we joined the Seine river. This signified the final "stage" of the route, with no more inclines and a river-side track to follow. Crucially it also meant that there were no more alternative routes to follow or paths to miss! All we had to do was follow the river...

By now we'd put some serious miles in, but were still feeling good. The rain returned along with the urban scenery. The peripheral suburbs along the river were spectacular and the riverside path fronted some luxury homes! In a perfect world, we would have taken an entire morning to meander down this stretch, but time was running out and we pressed on with our usual strong pace. 

Unfortunately, and a quick glance at a map of the area will confirm, the Seine does about 2 massive S-Bends as it winds into the centre of Paris. While the road was flat and fast, this proved to be a bit too far for us to tackle in the time available. After a particular muddy stretch where construction work had eradicated the trail, we threw it in and headed for the city streets. With very little recourse to my GPS-enabled phone, we made a bee-line for the Arc de Triomf (our pre-agreed symbolic finish line).

We arrived at our destination with tired legs, soaked clothes and massive smiles, but we arrived nonetheless! Day 2 of this tour was a record-breaker for me, with 227km under the wheels over a total of 15 hours (breaks included!).

Our time in Paris certainly wasn't the point of the tour (for example, we ate McDonalds for dinner) and we spend most of it looking for a taxi willing to take us to the bus terminal. Easier said than done! But eventually we prevailed and arrived at the bus station with 30 minutes to spare before "check-in" closed. No rest for the weary! 

Riding from London to Paris ticked all of the boxes for me, with fast roads, mixed yet easy terrain, foreign lands and long distances. Riding with Cameron was great - we had so much fun together that he even forgot that Sunday was his birthday - I had to remind him at 1pm! Our bikes performed admirably and, with any luck, we will be repeating the journey with a bigger group in the near future.

Land's End to John O Groats 2

Here's another write-up I did of my epic cycle tour through the UK as part of the Ubunye Challenge. This one was "commissioned" for the blog-roll of the Ubunye site itself. 

THE CYCLE LEG OF THE UBUNYE CHALLENGE

NOTES FROM A MONOPOD

There is a lot to be said for the tremendous simplicity of spending all day on a bike with nothing more significant to worry about than how far away the next food stop is. I discovered this through the incredible experience of participating in the cycle leg of the Ubunye Challenge, after Cameron Bellamy invited me to join his 7-day group. We each experienced so much in those seven days that it’s difficult to even begin to describe. Of course, the challenge meant different things to everyone and the things that stand out in my memory, now that almost three weeks have passed, will naturally be different to those for everyone else.

So, instead of trying to imagine how my fellow riders felt on the tour, and instead of setting out a day-by-day account of the experience, I will focus on those highlights…

DISTANCES

Before the Ubunye challenge, I considered a 90km ride to be a good day’s work. This comfort zone was smashed on day 2 of the ride, when we rode from the curiously named town of Westward Ho! (yes, there is officially an exclamation mark in its name) to Gloucester. I managed 140km that day, and that was just the morning’s ride. Stuart took my bike, and Cameron, Hayley and Greg carried on riding to complete 240km. This marked the furthest distance any of the riders had ever ridden. After that, anything less than 100km was just a warm-up and many of the days saw us reaching the 200km mark.

WEATHER

I confess to secretly harbouring hopes of balmy weather in the run-up to the ride. This naivety was thoroughly corrected as we woke up on Day 1 to what can only be described as a screaming Arctic headwind. Conditions could not have been worse as we set off that morning. The wind turbines along the side of the country roads looked as though they were about to lift off, and the icy rain fell almost horizontally as it drenched every layer of clothing we had on. Fortunately, we managed to outpace the misery over the next 2 days. 90km into Day 2, I managed to see my shadow for the first time since arriving in England, and by day 4 we had some wonderful clear skies. The riding gloves and leggings stayed firmly on, though!

Scotland presented the best weather conditions of the tour, as we encountered clear skies, brisk tailwinds, flurries of snow and sleet, rain and bright sunshine – all in the space of a couple of days. The irony of encountering the best weather at the most northern end of the ride was not wasted on any of us.

CRASHES & INJURIES

It is inevitable that when one spends so long on the saddle, the odds of wiping out are dramatically increased. At a roundabout intersection in Windermere, Greg hit the brakes so hard to avoid a reckless driver that he went over the handlebars. Luckily he avoided all contact with the car, but this didn’t stop him from standing in the middle of the street bellowing obscenities at the sheepish driver while he held up traffic. An experience the driver is unlikely to forget! Cam also managed to hit the tarmac on a fast stretch of country road on day 2, after wheel-sucking too closely and clipping my back wheel when I slowed down to stop.

The sheer quantity of kilometres travelled was our guarantee that nobody would complete the tour unscathed. Saddle sores, stiff legs, aching backs, swollen knees, wind-burn and numb hands (still recovering in my case!) all manifested themselves. Greg once again took the cake in this category as the only rider to hospitalise himself: Upon arriving at our B&B at Inverkeithing just north of Edinburgh, we found Greg in a pitiful state with an ambulance on its way to treat him. Too much exertion and not enough nutrition (not to mention heatstroke) had caught up with him and his system could take no more. Sadly this marked the end of Greg’s tour but he recovered well enough by the next day to continue in the support van with his characteristic good spirits.

SCENERY

The UK revealed itself to be surprisingly full of very charming scenery. Most of us had never ventured too far into the English countryside before. Everyone knows that there’s no better way to experience a landscape than to cycle through it. Without the cocoon of a vehicle or a full-face helmet between you and the elements, it finally becomes possible to soak up the passing landscape. I was very pleased to finally get the chance to become more acquainted with this often maligned country.

We all expected busy roads and service stations (of which there were many), but the true pleasure came from the ribbons of country road and quiet villages that we breezed through. Town names became blurred as we passed so many of them, but I will never forget the joy of riding into the famous Lake District in Cumbria. Rolling hills and low stone walls separated fields of fluffy white sheep and lambs, interspersed with streams running with clear fresh water. The Lake District tested our legs as we traversed Kirkstone Pass (all of 1497 feet), but the relentless climb was rewarded by a blistering descent into the lakeside town of Glenriding. We arrived with wide smiles that day!

Scotland stands out in my memory as having some of the best roads in all of the UK. We were hardly aware of the height of the fabled Scottish Highlands as the roads meandered past snow-capped peaks and forested valleys. Scottish engineering prowess certainly made for an easy passage through this majestic terrain. The distance between Glenriding and Inverness on day 5 was enormous, and we could not avoid arriving in the dark. Cam and I rolled into the YHA after 23h30, way after sun-down and in near complete darkness. If it weren’t for the smooth, wide highway we would almost certainly have had to call for backup as we were essentially riding blind.

EVERYTHING ELSE

There were so many other experiences I gained on the ride that can’t be so neatly categorised. Seeing Edinburgh Castle; gliding along the shore-side road of a lake so calm that the reflection on its surface was as bright as the sky itself; eating my own body-weight in chocolate; fixing a flat tire with Cam on the side of a quiet highway; taking seven pain-killers on the last day of the ride; trying to squint through the sleet as I wondered if I’d ever regain the feeling in my fingers on day 1; learning a Chinese nursery rhyme about a one-eared tiger. All of these memories are bundled into a wonderful montage that I will carry with me forever.

Of course, the tour would not have been possible without the hard work of Lauren Pienaar, Mirka Fortunova and Bhavna Sadarangani, our tireless backup drivers. Their hopes of a casual road trip through the UK didn’t survive past the first day! But they never faltered in their support and without them the tour would not have been possible.

If I ever had any doubts that Cameron had the ability to complete the enormous challenges he’d set for himself over the course of the Ubunye Challenge, they have been authoritatively crushed.

All doubts were finally cast into oblivion as I watched Cameron and Hayley pedal up to the grassy mound at John O Groats that marked the end of the ride. Cam, who on day 5 couldn’t tell if he was riding uphill or down, accompanied by Hayley and her entourage of pain-killers, represented all eight of us when they dismounted their bikes for the final time and we gathered for a photo.

And while seven of us raced back to the support van to shelter from the freezing wind, Cam was testing the water to see if he could fit in a cold water training swim before supper. The Ubunye Challenge is in good hands!

Finish line at last! 

Cam, already onto the next adventure...

The Adventure of a Lifetime

My obsession with all things pedal powered extends beyond Cape Town, and so it is that on the 27th of April 2012 I will be heading to the UK for an 8 day traverse of the landmass that is the United Kingdom of Great Britain.


The route from South East (Land's End) to the North West (John O Groats) follows secondary roads and helped along nicely by the prevailing trade wind. The total distance covered is almost 1000 miles (1,407km to be exact, thanks Wikipedia). Most people traverse the route over 10 to 12 days but my Giant and I will try to make the trip in a mere eight...


Eight days is by no means fast, nor even close to the insane cycle record of 44h4m20s, held by an apparent masochist in 2001 (again, thanks Wikipedia!) However, it does mean travelling between 180 and 230 km per day, which is certainly going to be a test.


The ride is part of an unprecedented global triathlon put together by my friend Cameron Bellamy, in support of the Angus Gillis Foundation in South Africa. The triathlon has been dubbed the Ubunye Challenge, and it's worth knowing about. If all goes to plan (and with Cameron in charge, somehow it will) this will be the first time in human history that a person, under his own power, cycles the length of the UK, swims the English Channel, and rows across the Atlantic in one year, or at all.

I love a good cause, and a good challenge! Cameron has kindly opened the challenge to certain invited guests, and I was thrilled when I cracked a nod. The kit-list is growing but ultimately I hope to make it through with a minimum of admin and fuss, learning as I go.


Needless to say many lessons will be learnt along the way, so keep coming back for updates on the progress of preparation and of course the tour itself.