Anyone done Sustrans Route 2 (Southern Coast)?

"Ray Swartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I will be in England (normally I'm in California) in
September and am looking to do some cycle touring when I
am there. I was wondering if anyone can give me any advice
on starting in Canterbury and taking route 1 to Dover and
then following route 2 along the southern coast either all
the way west or stopping along the way and heading north
(to my final stop of Beaconsfield).

Whatever comments you have would be greatly appreciated.

Ray

I don't know the area but the County Council's web site
looks helpful.

kent.gov.ukhome.htmlOpen ↗

T

"Ray Swartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I will be in England (normally I'm in California) in
September and

am

Quoted message said:

looking to do some cycle touring when I am there. I was
wondering

if

Quoted message said:

anyone can give me any advice on starting in Canterbury
and taking route 1 to Dover and then following route 2
along the southern

coast

Quoted message said:

either all the way west or stopping along the way and
heading north (to my final stop of Beaconsfield).

That would be scenic but slow. Sustrans is the British
equivalent to Rails-to-Trails, so they try to make as much
of the route as possilbe on bike trails. Sometimes this just
means sidewalks alongside main roads, although good
sidewalks.

It helps to have good maps, and Britain has good maps. For
lightness an Ordnance Survey road atlas of Britain, scale
about 3 miles to the inch, is probably best. Tear out the
pages you need, and mail the rest back home. That will do ok
for outside urban areas, but won't show you the Sustrans off-
road trails.

To get to Beaconsfield, to the WNW of London, you will
either have to go through London, or keep to the W. of it.
The W. is pretty country, but tends to have enough people to
be almost a quasi suburb. To convince themselves it's still
country the locals have kept the narrow lanes, but sometimes
those lanes can have considerable traffic on them. It might
be better to bypass some stretches by train. You can take
your bike on most trains outside the rush hour, and even,
counterflow, during rush hour. Just wheel your bike on and
stand in a vestibule holding it. No extra cost for the bike.

Trains tend to go into or out of central London. London,
of course, is a big city, but you could do worse than
spending half a day or so exploring central London by
bike. Example sights: alongside the Thames, or canal
towpaths, through some Royal Parks, Smithfield, Leadenhall
or Spitalfields Markets, up Whitehall, or just poking your
nose down back streets and alleys in the neighbourhoods.
Duck into a tube station and pick up a free copy of the
local sheet of London's bike map from the rack by the
ticket office (sheet 10 for Central London). Use trains to
bypass the boring suburbs.

Get in tourch with theCyclists Touring Club www.ctc.org.uk
and the London Cycling Campaign www.lcc.org.uk

Jeremy Parker