London behind us, we set off towards the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone — the cheapest way across the Channel with bikes. En route we took a short detour through Kent in the southeast of England.
Our first night out of London was spent in Maidstone with a Warmshowers couple, but the following night was rather less certain.
We could have made it from Maidstone to Folkestone in time to take the tunnel in the afternoon, but since we'd booked a few days in advance and didn't want to rush, we decided to add another night in the area.
With no deadline to meet, we wound our way through Kent's country lanes — up one hill, down the next — passing through Ashford.
Sleeping in England on a bike trip
Sleeping outdoors in an English winter — especially with the damp — is particularly uncomfortable. The fog seeps into everything and you feel the cold right down to the bone.
During our ride through the centre of England the previous winter we enjoyed a whole week in the tent.
We had decent sleeping bags at that point — the kind you can find here — but we didn't have sleeping mats to insulate us from the ground, so the cold and damp came straight through the tent floor and into the bags.
That particular evening we had no desire to pitch the tent, despite having proper sleeping mats at last — it had started raining and the forecast was for steady downpours until the following afternoon. Putting up the tent in the rain and then packing away a soaking tent in the morning wasn't what we had in mind.
We also had no intention of paying for accommodation on just the second night of our bike trip. So we took refuge in a train station instead. Unfortunately it closed at midnight, which meant we spent the remaining hours until dawn dozing in a 24-hour McDonald's.
Half asleep, we got back on the bikes to find somewhere for breakfast — and stumbled upon a small local restaurant doing an all-you-can-eat breakfast for just over four quid. I ploughed through plate after plate while Ilze laughed and said that at this rate I'd be rolling around the world rather than cycling around it.
Into France through the Eurotunnel by bike
Stomachs full and energy restored, we pedalled to Folkestone and said goodbye to English roads. There we found a van with a trailer made for bicycles.
The way the Eurotunnel works for cyclists is curious: to go through it on a bike you have to be inside a vehicle. So we loaded our bikes onto the trailer, climbed into the van, and then drove onto the train that actually goes through the tunnel into France.
Good bye England! Oh là là France!
