The Family Bike Touring Guide

Early start! Alarms were set for 4.20am and we left around 5.20am. Thankfully it wasn’t too dark and it was dry and not windy, two things we had been praying for.

The first bit of the route to Worthing was familiar with Zak, Maisey and I having ridden that bit before. Just outside of Worthing we stopped for a Costa take out coffee. Jon woke up the previous day with a sore throat and cold, which seemed to have progressed by day 1 and he was not feeling great. Nice cycle path from Worthing till past Brighton and then a busy bit of road that was not super fun. It was quite handy that Zak had cycled the whole route a few weeks before so he was familiar with where it It was interesting riding though Brighton having been there loads as a child/teenager but not been back much since. The prom was really busy although it was early and Brighton looked a lot more ‘scruffy’ than I remember it. We cycled past the King Alfred swimming pool where I used to go as a child as it was the only local-ish swimming pool with a slide.

As we arrived in Newhaven there was some drizzle. We had a McDonalds breakfast (that took ages and was not fast!). Jon went to the Halfords opposite and then spent some time doing something with this brakes. Getting onto the ferry was easy although we were told to ‘arrive earlier next time’. Checking in was from 9.30 till 10.15. I think we got there just before 10. There was a good space for the bikes to go and we left all the panniers on the bikes and just took our valuables with us, we didn’t feel we needed to lock them.

Thankfully the sea was very calm and so no rocking boat. We read, went on our phones, played cards and had a meal. Jon was feeling more groggy by the hour.

Getting off the ferry was super easy. We just cycled all the way past the cars to Passport control, where we were told off again, this time for not taking the ferry tickets out of our passports and not having them open at the photo page (I normally would do this if in a car but we cycled and then stopped so I had no time to get them all onto the correct page).

Cycling on the right was okay and we quickly adapted and went on our way for the 18-ish miles to the Airbnb. Nearly all of the route was on cycle paths. A local dog walker stopped to chat to us and although clearly he knew we couldn’t really communicate kept on chatting away. Butterflies were landing on our heads during the conversation. The last bit of the cycling was quite hard, one big long climb. Jon was struggling, feeling poorly and a heavy bike and a hill were not a good combo. Zak is clearly the fittest of us all making his way to the top quicker than us and not finding it too hard.

A few days ago our Airbnb host messaged to ask if we would like a ‘simple dinner’ at no extra charge. A ‘simple dinner’ it was not. We had sparking wine and these yummy pastry things for starter, then salad rice and marinated chicken for main and chocolate brownie for dessert. A lovely meal with lovely hosts. The son (age 18) was fluent in English, mostly self taught, with an American accent and he was really interesting to chat to. The family also had three gorgeous cats. When we booked this Airbnb I had overlooked it was in a family home and we really didn’t know what to expect, but wow! We had two bedrooms and our own bathroom in a separate area of the house and such lovely company with an amazing free meal.

Super tired from a long day, we showered and were asleep by about 10pm. The weather was perfect all day, shorts and t-shirts without being too hot.