North Kent Coastal Again

Just a very short ride report today.

A fabulous ride from Ramsgate to Faversham with the wind on our backs in complete contrast to the explorer earlier in year when we cycled for thirty miles into a headwind.

Plenty of stops for refreshments on this ride too: Palm Bay for morning coffee, Herne Bay for lunch (where some riders were served baked potatoes the size of a rugby ball) and the Freewheel Cycling hub/pub in Faversham. And joy of joys some of Alisons homemade wonderful chocolate brownies as a special treat. Thanks Alison, I only do these rides because of the brownies you know!

Just one puncture today and it wasn’t even one of our riders. We met a man in a wheelchair being pushed by a woman, he had a flat tyre and was struggling to get back their car parked at Reculver. We weren’t able to repair the ‘p’ but we did manage to reinflate the tyre sufficiently so he could get safely back to his car.

Couple of interesting ornithological sightings; sharp eyed Sarah-jane on her first ride with us spotted a buzzard swooping across a freshly ploughed field. Later John spotted a largish long legged bird with a curved beak which we think might have been a whimbrel but on reflection was probably only a curlew which are quite common in the Thames Estuary.

Birchington-on-Sea was interesting and might have been more correctly referred to as Sea-on-Birchington as the breakers were smashing into the sea wall throwing great spouts of sea water into the air and across the cycle-path. I don’t think any of us escaped getting damp and some got a bit of a soaking.

Had fabulous riders on today’s ride in spite of several people who had to drop out for one reason or another we still managed to fill all twelve spaces and what great company you all were.

Here are some pictures.