London to Portsmouth

2 Pints of Coke and and a Lucozade

Saturday the 31^st of May was hot and sunny and I made my way by train from Rayleigh, Essex to Stratford, London. I had to stop there because of maintenance work on the train so my journey began from Stratford the location for the 2012 Olympics. 

 

From Stratford I went further into London where I crossed the Thames on London Bridge (1973) and following the A24 out of London to Epson.

The 3 hours of cycling to get out of London was pretty uneventful. Lots of stops/starts with lights and traffic as I had expected and it was reasonably flat which I also expected.

However things were about to turn ugly.

My route took me through an area which I later came to know as the Sussex Downs. I assumed the route to Portsmouth would be reasonably flat and it would a gentle three days on the bike to ease me back into cycling. I got it totally wrong. It was constant up and down with a mix of rolling hills, sharp climbs and descents as well as some long climbs too. There were lots of cyclist about being the weekend and Sussex is and area popular with cyclists because of the little traffic and lots of hills. A few times people in the going in the other direction (downhill) commented that it was a good effort to be going up there so when that happened i knew I was in trouble. 

On top of that I had under estimated what food and water I would need while actually biking so by 4pm I was shattered. Tired , hungry and very thirsty I found a pub, where there were a number of cyclist were. They looked at the bike and all the gear, I told them what I was doing there and they were all a bit amused. 2 pints of Coke and a Lucozade later I left to find a campsite that was nearby.

I setup the tent, had dinner and was asleep by 9pm. I wondered what the hell I had I got myself into and told myself that tomorrow would be easier. Turns out it only got worse.

Day two and it took me an 2 hours to get packed up and I was away by 10am. Rolling hills for the first hour and then to the I found myself pushing the bike up a step hill. A man in a car asked my if I wanted a lift to the top as it got steeper. I declined but by the end I had second thoughts. I managed the hill with a mix of walking and biking until I got near the top where it got step. My bike is 15kg and fully loaded it somewhere close to 40kg so a good workout just pushing it up something step. I was pushing it about 10m at at time before I had to have a break. This went on for about half an hour until I got to the top. There was a road sign there with a step descent warning and a 17 degree marking to say how step it was.

The constant up/down continued all day. The route I had programmed into the GPS (avoiding all major roads) took me through country lanes, across paddocks and often in the opposite direction from where I needed to go.

10 hours after I set out I arrived at the park where I though I would be a camping ground. There was no camping ground and it was an area where people walked their dogs. So after a pint and a chat with people in the pub I made my way back to the park to camp in a quiet corner. 

Day 3 and I was away by 9.30am. This time I had some luck and the route to Portsmouth mostly followed a train track. Train tracks are flat so it was a much easier day. There was only 1 hill I had to push my bike up today. Finally I rolled into Portsmouth at  4pm and waited for the 10pm ferry to St Malo. 

I had much to learn about cycle touring.

Preperation

After deciding that I was going to bike from London to Capetown I thought a little about what was actually required to make it happen.

Bike/Camping Gear/Clothes/Route planning/Visas and Vaccinations were a few of the things that I had come up with. I did some research on all of these things then decided that I needed to get the vaccination's in NZ and that the rest I would worry about when I got to London.

There is a far greater range of the items that I would need available in the UK and it was all significantly cheaper than in NZ.

On my arrival in London I stayed with my brother Damon, his very understanding wife Jo and my nieces Rose (5) and Ella (1). It was excellent to see them all and I am grateful for them putting me up for nearly a month.

After having a few days to settle in I began the task of getting everything that I would need together.

To begin with I started by looking at websites of people who had or were currently biking across Africa or the world and seeing what gear they took.

I put what they were using into a spreadsheet and it became pretty clear the kinds of things I would need to have before I set out.

Bike – Bike, bike racks, panniers, computer, pedals, shoes, tyres, spare parts, various tools, locks

Clothes – Shorts, jacket, shirts, wet weather gear, socks, gloves, hats, helmet

Technology – Camera, laptop, video camera, e-book reader, GPS

Camping – Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, cooker, plates etc

From there it was a more research on exactly I needed, then what make/model would be best and finally where I could get the best price for what I needed.

I got the bike, a Surly Disk Trucker, from Brixton Cycles in London after a test ride and

the rest of the gear came via the Internet from various parts of the England, Scotland and France.

I also spent a few days looking at possible routes/bike paths/ferry dates/plane departures to get to Cape Town. It stopped being fun and became an exercise in logistics so I decided not to do any planning at all and to just deal with the 3 key things.

• Leave from London to somewhere in Europe.
• Get to Cairo to get a visa for Sudan. 
• Arrive in Cape Town

After 3 weeks I had almost all of the gear together and went for a 40k ride with the bike fully loaded. This went reasonably well, nothing fell off, nothing needed serious adjusting and it was remarkably comfortable.

I set the departure date for Saturday May 31.