Dover to Norwich on NCR1. (Day 2 Margate to Rochester)

Dover to Norwich on NCR1 day 2

Forget Me Not Tea Room,

Seasalter
Open Everyday 9-4
and
Mews Brewery House,
Iwade

After yesterday's shorter cycling day then today we were down to business with a ride along the North Kent coast. 

My non Premier Inn strategy had not so far paid off as there was no porridge available at breakfast this morning but after extra toast it was pedals down just after 9 as we returned to the seafront at Margate.

Getting back on seafront cycle path

What followed was 22 miles of the best off road cycling that national cycle routes can offer as we rode almost continually by the side of the sea.

The only downside was that it was slow progress as the surface was a bit bumpy and you had to avoid the odd pedestrian whilst making sure you didn’t ride off the edge into the sea. But it was certainly worth the leisurely pace as we enjoyed lots of sea view action.

Lots of sea view action

I was also looking forward to more lido and pier action but the only lido we found was in disrepair 

Sanded up Lido was the only one found today

Whilst the only pier was too short to qualify so no thing of the day certificates will be issued on this leg.

The only pier spotted today was too short to qualify for pier of the day

You may not realise it but Mrs Crusader is a Geography graduate so she was very excited to see some students on the beach being taught (or shouted) about longshore drift, whatever that is. She couldn't remember either but remembered the term.

School Children learning about long shore drift

However her skills don’t extend to knowing where anywhere is. As we arrived at Herne Bay she was convinced that this was in North Wales and that the distant Isle of Sheppey (below) was off the coast of Scotland. I asked where she though Canterbury was and was surprised when she correctly answered “Kent”, but spoiled it by then saying that despite being in it at the moment wasn’t really sure where Kent was. I was glad that I was in charge of route planning.

Isle of Sheppey which is apparently off the coast of Scotland

After skirting round Whitstable (in Devon) we returned to the coast and our first stop at Forget me Not tearoom. I had picked it as it was on the seafront so was rather disappointed that it was on the wrong side of the sea wall meaning the only view was of the next door caravan park.

Today's first cafe stop was at the forget me not tea room, but I soon did

The cakes were a bit dry and the hot chocolate was more of a not chocolate so I have already forgotten the forget me not tearoom.

Disappointing cakes and drinks

It was now time to leave the coast and route 15 behind and return to NCR1. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with this route as the planner does like to mix the terrain up so you never know what to expect. And it certainly didn’t disappoint as after a nice series of quiet country lanes it inexplicably threw us off down a very bumpy off road trail by a sewage farm and river bank.

Typical random bumpy off road bumpy section on NCR1

It was then along side a number of busy roads

Typical Kent roads with an old hop drying house on every corner

Before finally sending us into a field where the signs soon disappeared as NCR1 seemed to pretend it wasn’t him and you had to navigate your own way back to somewhere more rideable.

NCR1 sent us into a random field

After 20 miles of some of the worst cycling national cycle routes can offer we made it to Iwade (no idea where that is) and the Mews Brewhouse cafe. Despite it looking like a quaint village tea room on google it was in fact in a small shopping precinct on the edge of a new build estate. 

Second stop wasn't what I was expecting

The staff were very nice but cake selection sparse, drinks poor and marshmallow brownie didn’t really work so it was the third disappointing cafe choice in a row. Hopefully we will find a good one soon as we cycled past a lot of nice looking stops today but they all came too early in the ride.

Disappointing cakes and drinks

For the final stretch the NCR1 surface lottery continued in the same way. We were now in the garden of England so there was much sign of brewery and orchards although we could have done without having to cycle through one.

Cycle through an Orchard

The route got more and more built up as we weaved our way through a housing estate, which certainly didn’t offer the property porn opportunities that Mrs Crusader had enjoyed along the coastal stretch in the morning, and along side several roads.

The route continued to go down market

There was time to return to the Medway estuary for a some good views although this didn’t last for long. You could tell it was one of the few nice bits in the area as there was a plethora of memorial benches all competing for the best views.

Very popular site for dead peoples benches

The final stretch was through Gillingham (in the North East) which involved going along the side of the dual carriageway and making use of more pedestrian crossing than the world champion stick shaker could ever wave his twig at.

Route get more built up as we reached Gillingham

We eventually got to the George Hotel near Rochester (Imaginary town in Thomas Hardy books) which looked like a Premier Inn clone as it was branded in purple but at least the menu is different and we have fine views of the Medway from our room.

Views across the Medway from our hotel

So today was very much a game of two halves. Tomorrow we leave the coast behind for good so let’s hope the route performs better throughout the day and that there is porridge for breakfast.

Tomorrows weather forecast

National cycle route 1 Cafes

Cafe	Hot Chocolate Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Cake Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Mrs Knotts Tea Room	7.3	6	5.9	6.5	8	6.74
Forget me not Tearoom	4	6.5	7.2	7	6.8	6.30
Mews Brewery House	5.9	6.5	4.2	5.7	6.2	5.70
Hardie Park  Cafe
Bee Shed Coffee House
The Tea Cup
Le Tour Cycle Cafe
Hide Out
In-a-spin

Route

Click here to download 55 mile Margate to Rochester GPX file to your gps

Profile

Stats

Route	Miles	Average Mph	Time on Bike	Metres climbed
Dover to Margate	38.71	9.9	3:53	416
Margate to Rochester	56.3	9.86	5:42	500
Rochester to Maldon
Maldon to Woodbridge
Woodbridge to Norwich
Totals	95.01	9.9	9:35	916

Dover to Norwich on NCR1, The missing link. (Day 1 Dover to Margate)

Dover to Norwich on NCR1 day 1

Mrs Knotts Tea Room,

White Cliffs of Dover,
Open Everyday 11-5

You may have noticed that over the last few years I have been on a mission to find the best cafes on the national cycle routes. It all started on the great ride North from Norwich to St Andrews on National cycle route (NCR) 1. This was followed by the less than successful trip in Wales on NCR3 which I'm not allowed to talk about as it still upsets Mrs Crusader. Then last year we went along most of NCR2 by the seaside south coast from Exmouth to Dover.

At the end of the trip I noticed this sign and my eyes lit up while Mrs Crusaders shoulders dropped as she new what she was doing this summer. Yes we were going to complete the job and join the NCR1 and NCR2 rides by cycling from Dover to Norwich doing the missing link, Hurrah!!!

The inspiration for this trip

So this is why we found ourselves and bicycles locked and loaded at Norwich station ready to board the train of adventure to Dover and the start of another fun filled cycling and cake extravaganza (hopefully, unless Kent is like Wales).

The route would be as followed and split into 5 sections of 50-60 miles.

The planned route mainly on NCR1

The train journey went smoothly as we changed at Stratford, crossed town to Stratford international and sped down to Dover. The only drama was when Mrs Crusader got a telling off for putting her feet on the seats but was let off with a warning.

As Confucius said "every great journey starts with a cake" so on arrival in Dover the priority was to find some.  I had done the research and had found a cafe not far away, on top of the famous white cliffs, which is where we headed. I also know that there are 3 things Mrs Crusader hates on this type of cycle adventure.

1. Going up steep hills

2. Going on bumpy off road

3. Getting lost and being persuaded to go through fields rather than retrace your steps

I felt I had exceeded expectations by delivering the holy trinity of cycling no no’s within the first 5 miles as we tried to find Mrs Knott's tea room on top of the cliffs. It was definitely a good sign that we were still speaking when we eventually got there and hopefully I have got these mistakes out of the way early doors this time.

The Famous light house with a museum all about Knotts (probably)

Mrs Knotts tea room is mainly arrived at by walkers and it is inside a famous lighthouse. It is named after the lady who first tied two pieces of rope together, several times. Sadly the cake selection was limited and the Madeira style cake we had was fairly average however my hot chocolate was very good and the views from the outdoor seating area were stunning. 

First set of refreshments

You could even see France today.

However we still had over 30 miles around the Kent coast to cover in order to get to today’s overnight stay. The first few miles were on some nice cycle tracks along by the side of shingle beaches and it was as flat as an award winning pancake so I was back in the good books.

We then arrived at Deal who produced the first entry for pier of the day. I was hoping for a good contest but there seems to be a shortage of piers in Kent as it turned out to be the only entry, but well done to Deal Pier anyway. I will of course be sending the Mayor a certificate.

Deal pier

From here we headed slightly inland as the land between us and the sea was taken up by some top links golf courses including Royal St George’s a regular Open venue. Fortunately Mrs Crusader had not packed her clubs or we would have been stopping for a round.

Royal Cinque Ports golf course

At this point we split away from NCR1 for a bit as NCR 15 takes a much more interesting route along the coast. It is called the Viking trail and hugs the coast on some excellent tarmac tracks for most of the way. We didn’t see any Vikings but we did see where they had parked their boat while they went off for a quick pillage.

A viking long boat parking area

I know there are 3 things Mrs Crusader likes on a cycling adventure.

1. Cycling by the sea

One of many sections right by the beach

2. Cycling on good tarmac off road cycle tracks

3. Looking at posh houses along the route

Posh Houses

The Viking trail delivered these in spades meaning day 1 was off to a great start and the pre lunch dramas were soon forgotten. Things got even better when we passed 3 sea based lidos enabling me to start a new Lido of the day competition. The Mayor of Thanet can soon look forward to a certificate dropping through his letterbox.

Thanet's excellent Lido

This year I have abandoned the Premier inn overnight strategy as despite them being very bike friendly they are rather dull so we are going for a more high risk approach of random picks off booking.com. Today’s offering is the Hussar Hotel (which is actually a pub) in Margate (which is Kent’s answer to Great Yarmouth) and it seems functional if not characterful. We await to see how the breakfast performs. 

Tomorrow we head West towards London where hopefully there will be plenty of pier and Lido action and some top cafes and cake to check out.

Tomorrows weather forecast

Weather looks promising

National cycle route 1 Cafes

Cafe	Hot Chocolate Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Cake Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
Mrs Knotts Tea Room	7.3	6	5.9	6.5	8	6.74
Forget me not Tearoom
Mews Brewery House
Hardie Park  Cafe
Bee Shed Coffee House
The Tea Cup
Le Tour Cycle Cafe
Hide Out
In-a-spin

Route

Click here to download 33 mile Dover to Margate GPX file to your gps

Profile

Stats

Route	Miles	Average Mph	Time on Bike	Metres climbed
Dover to Margate	38.71	9.9	3:53	416
Margate to Rochester
Rochester to Maldon
Maldon to Woodbridge
Woodbridge to Norwich
Totals	38.71	9.9	3:53	416

Saddle Sore.(Connaught's Coffee House, Attleborough)

Connaught’s Coffee House,

Attleborough,

Open Mon-Fri 8.30-4, Sat 9-4, Sun 10-1,

Highly Recommended

Followers of my Facebook Cake Crusader Page (https://www.facebook.com/Cafecycletour/) will know that I'm about to go cycling crazy over the summer months. I have recently been concentrating on endurance running which sadly involves no cafe stops or cake. But this is about to change. I have a number of recommendations for cafes to visit that I need to follow up on. Then I have another trip on a National cycle route followed by the search for the best cake along the River Danube. If that's not enough, September sees me travel to the French Alps to see if they do better croissants than the Pyrenees offered up last year. There is also the climax to my sofa to sportive project and the continuing hunt for fruit scone of the year #FSOTY. 

But where to start? Well obviously with a ride to Attleborough with Mrs Crusader of course.

At this point you have a choice. If you want to know all about bicycle saddles and seatpost adjustments then read on. If however, like most people, you just want to know if the cafe was any good then I suggest you skip the next couple of paragraphs.

Mrs Crusader had been having saddle issues. The saddle itself is apparently super comfy but if the bike goes over a large bump a saddle rail pops out of the seatpost clamp causing it to slope backwards. On further analysis it became apparent the rails were oversized oval ones whereas the clamp was for a normal round rail. Because there are no standards in the world of seatposts then it's not possible to just replace the clamp so a new seat post had to be purchased.

Despite it being a very fiddly job I was very pleased to have joined the new saddle with the post for its maiden voyage yesterday. However before we had got down the street Mrs Crusader was complaining that the saddle was too far back, and as she only has little arms, could no longer reach the handlebars. So we stopped while undertook the first adjustment of the day. Unfortunately the saddle couldn't be moved far enough to completely rectify the problem so after a few more miles it was time to stop again. I suggested the old trick of turning the post round so it sloped forward meaning the saddle would be further forward too.

One of many seatpost and saddle adjustments to Mrs Crusaders bike on the ride

This meant a longer stop but I was very pleased to successfully make the switch. Although it was a further improvement I was informed that it was still not right. It took a total of six stops until I eventually got approval that the saddle was now back in the correct place. I was relieved to get it sorted today as Mrs Crusader is a key component in my summer cycling plans.

Much later than planned we arrived at Connaught's Coffee House on the outskirts of Attleborough town centre which I had been recommended to go to as the scones were meant to be very good. 

Outside Connaught's Coffee House

After locking our bikes up against the nearby railings we went inside to check out the cake selection. As well as the scones there was the largest chocolate cake I had ever seen. In fact, however tempting, it looked too large for even me to try so I went for the more manageable lime and blueberry cake and Mrs Crusader a fresh cream strawberry sponge cake. It was a fine selection so got a high effective cake selection (ECS) score. 

Cake selection featuring an enormous chocolate cake

We sat down and, expecting congratulations on my saddle adjustment skills, I foolishly asked if the saddle was really ok. Like the Princess in the Princess and the Pea Fairytale would have been if she had a bike then Mrs Crusader told me that it now needed to slope forward by a further one or two degrees to be properly comfy again. So back outside I went to retrieve the saddle seatpost combination from the bike and returned to try and undertake this precision alteration.

Our cakes and drinks arrived and I was very pleased with the hot chocolate offering which had a proper strong chocolate taste and got a deserved high Hot Chocolate Quality (HCQ) mark. Mrs Crusader thought her black Americano was a good one too. As for the cakes they were fabulous, in fact Mrs Crusader felt her strawberry sponge cake could have been the best she had ever had, especially when she discovered the odd piece of white chocolate in it as well.

Todays drinks and half eaten cakes

On adding up the scores it was clear that Connaught's was a top rated cafe and the best I had visited this year so I highly recommend a visit. 

To avoid any further opportunity for future saddle adjustments then I insisted that Mrs Crusader formally signed off the new saddle position as being 100% correct.

With saddle now officially 100% correct and the wind behind we flew back, that is until I noticed that my seat post had not been properly tightened and had slipped down as I sheepishly requested we stop while I adjusted it. 

The focus now moves on to taking my sofa to sportive team on their next two 'training rides' before undertaking a trip from Dover to Norwich on NCR1 so watch this space.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.75	8	7.7	9	6.75	8.04

Map of route

Click here to download 31 mile Norwich Attleborough loop gpx file for your GPS