The Cake Crusader

Cake Crusader Book

There is now a Cake Crusader book available where you can follow my journey from humble local trips to world record attempts and near-death experiences. How did a simple method of keeping track of decent cycling café pit stops turn my life upside down? Track my adventures into Europe, up mountains and right across Great Britain as I become a 'rising star' on social media. Will I prove my critics wrong? Should cheese scones be served hot or cold? Do I really have nothing better to do with his time? A must read for lovers of cycling and cake or anyone wanting to make it big in the virtual world

Available on Amazon

Monday, 9 July 2018

By the Seaside on National Cycle route 2 Day 5 (Brighton to Hastings)

By the seaside on NCR2 day 5

Arlingtons Tea Garden

Arlington,

Hughie’s Beach Cafe,

Bexhill

Today was planned to be the easiest day as it was the shortest ride and apart from a sting in the tail it looked pretty flat. I was also hoping that all the weekend beach goers, cluttering up the proms, would be back at work making our progress easier. Despite this it appeared that Mrs Crusader was getting into the swing insisting that we still had an early breakfast and pedals down by 8:30.

Pedals down at 8:30 by Brighton Pier

We started off by leaving Brighton on a nice cycle track adjacent to the beach before reaching the main road. This soon diverted into housing estates criss crossing roads as the the cycle path regularly and unexpectedly switched pavement. For the second time in two days Mrs Crusader was subjected to cycle rage from the local pensioners when she accidentally missed the correct piece of cycle path. As she carefully scooted her bike along, while trying to locate the proper bit, she was rudely advised where to go and to get off the pavement. Sussex has definitely won the prize for the least friendly county to cycle in.

Leaving Brighton on the cycle paths

The next big town we came to was Newhaven. I was particularly excited as it would mean we would be following the Avenue Verte for the next few miles. You may remember that myself and Big George cycled all the Avenue Verte (London to Paris) in 2014 on my very first long distance cafe based adventure. You can relive it here (London to Paris on Avenue Verte day 1) whereas l kindly made Mrs Crusader relive it first hand thus saving her the bother.

Cycling on the Avenue Verte for the second time in 4 years

From here the route really picked up as we cycled along side some pretty stony beaches.

A pretty stony beach

Then we headed inland through some delightful country lanes with no grumpy pensioners in site.

Grumpy free pensioner villages

In fact we even got the odd cheery wave from the passing cars we pulled over for plus a nice chat with another couple of cyclists riding from Brighton to Hastings for charity. They couldn’t understand why we were doing the same thing for fun (for 6 days!). We were therefore in good spirits when we arrived at today’s first cafe the Arlington tea gardens in Arlington.

Arlington tea gardens

It was a perfect day to sit in a tea garden so a high atmosphere and ambiance score was awarded. As was the score for the large cake selection. I went for the gluten free chocolate and avocado cake while Mrs Crusader had a strawberry and white chocolate muffin.

The tea garden seating area

My cake was ok but I have decided that I prefer them with the gluten but Mrs Crusader claimed her muffin was the best cake she had had, not just this week but ever.

Cake selection featuring Mrs Crusaders best cake ever

Not surprisingly this put the Arlington tea rooms high up my seaside cafe league table and straight into second place (and top of the non sea view cafes). Over cakes I warned Mrs Crusader the next section had bumpy off road. Fortunately it wasn’t that bad and the main obstacle were the hoards of young people doing their Duke of Edinburgh award swarming in the area.

A bit of off road action

Once back on the road we headed down to the coast again for some more pleasant riding along the seafront with far fewer people about on the proms than over the weekend.

Cycling on the pedestrian free proms

This took us to our second cafe stop of the day but for the first time this week my target venue was shut. As we were in the seaside resort of Bexhill on sea it was easy to find another one so we stopped at the next cafe with a sea view which was Hughie’s.

Hughies Beach hut

As it had not been properly researched it was no surprise that the cake selection was small and the drinks average. My ginger cake and Mrs Crusaders fruit scone (with glacier cherries, argh!) we’re both nice without being special.

Average selection of cakes and drinks

The main thing Hughie’s had going for it was the sea view which we enjoyed for sometime as they had managed to lose our food order despite it being the only one they currently had.

Waiting for lunch to turn up

With food chased down it was back along the coast for some of the best seaside views we had had.

Lovely sea views

In no time we had made it to Hastings. It may have been the eerie feel to Hastings partially burnt down pair or the fact it was the only one on this stage of the route but either way it was clear winner of today’s pier of the day.

Hastings pier was pier of the day

It had been an excellent ride so far and with only 4 miles to our hotel we were looking at a nice early finish. But those 4 miles headed in land across Hastings and featured some very steep hills. I have made a note to research hotel altitude locations better on any future trips. On the positive side at least we start tomorrow at the top of a hill.

Walking up Hastings

Tomorrow is our final day when we are due to reach the end point of national cycle route 2 in Dover. However it looks like being fought with danger as we have tickets for the 4:20 train. It is the second longest stage, has several unknown off road sections and there is a strong wind against us so it’s still all to play for.

Tomorrows weather forecast

National cycle route 2 Cafes

Cafe	Hot Chocolate Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Cake Selection	Cake Taste Quality	Atmosphere and Ambiance	Total
The Hideaway	6.9	7	7.8	8.1	9.3	7.82
Symondsbury Kitchen	5	7.8	6.3	7.9	8.2	7.04
Moreton Tearooms	6.8	7	5.7	7.4	8.1	7.10
Knoll Beach Cafe	5	7.5	5	7.5	6	6.10
Rosie Leas Tea room	6.4	7.5	7	7.2	7	7.02
The Beach Hut Cafe	6.1	7.5	6	8.3	8.1	7.2
Spade and Fork	5	7.5	7.1	7.75	6.1	6.69
Sea Lane Café	5.5	7.5	9	7.2	6.8	7.2
Arlingtons Tea Garden	7.1	7.5	8.3	8.4	8	7.76
Hughie’s Beach Cafe	5.2	7	5.5	6.9	8.3	6.58
Deblyns
Comemos Deli

Route

Click here to download 50 mile Brighton to Hastings GPX file to your gps
Profile

Stats

Route	Miles	Average Mph	Time on Bike	Metres climbed
Exmouth to Puncknowle	54.8	10	5:28	1551
Punckowle to Christchurch	52.1	10.42	5:00	650
Christchurch to Portsmouth	47	10.74	4:22	340
Portsmouth to Brighton	57.8	10.95	5:16	166
Brighton to Hastings	50.2	9.9	5:04	707
Hastings to Dover
Totals	261.9	10.0	25:10	3414

Sunday, 8 July 2018

By the Seaside on National Cycle route 2 Day 4 (Portsmouth to Brighton)

By the seaside on NCR2 day 4

Spade and Fork

Chichester

Sea Lane cafe

Worthing

We were now halfway through the ride and my main goal; of proving to Mrs Crusader that I could deliver a good cycling experience was not going well. Hills, bogs and bumpy off-road tracks had all distracted from her favourite seaside cycling setting. Our dash across Portsmouth for the start of England's World Cup match yesterday afternoon had not helped my case either. Today I was confident I had it sorted. The ride had the flattest profile ever, there would be many sightings of the sea and I had promised her a cream tea finale.

As always there was a challenge as it was the longest ride of the week (nearly 60 miles) and we needed to get to the cream tea before closing time. Our first obstacle was Hayling Island ferry which only ran about once an hour. I was keen we got there for the first crossing at 9am so another relatively early wake up to make sure pedals were down by 8.15am for the 5 mile ride to the port.

Pedals down from Portsmouth at 8:15am

The first target was made with 10 minutes to spare as we boarded the ship. I was particularly impressed with the on board cycle rack which was nearly full today.

The on board cycle rack facility

Partly because of the cycle rack facility but mainly because it was the only ferry we were going on, it won today’s ferry of the day prize.

Ferry of the day

I had never been to Hayling Island before but Mrs Crusader had coincidently come on a family holiday last time there was a heatwave back in 1976, and boy was it hot again today. Worse still we soon found ourselves on one of those disliked off-road tracks fortunately it wasn’t too bumpy and the views were good so I think I got away with it.

Bumpy track on way around Hayling Island

From here the next section was the first one I had been disappointed with from a scenery perspective. It delivered on flatness but went alongside busy roads and through towns albeit on cycle paths. The only interesting section was when I got lost and we ended up cycling along a river looking for a bridge.

Lost on the river path

So it was with some relief when we finally made it to the first cafe stop. As it was a Sunday there were less options open to us so I had gone for a safe bet of the Spade and Fork cafe at the local garden centre.

Outside today's first cafe stop

Despite it being gone 11:30 all the other punters were having full English breakfast. I was not impressed as I believe breakfast should be done and dusted by 9:00 and I had completed mine over 4 hrs ago. To make matters worse the lady sitting behind, with her back to me, started a full on rant to her husband about evil cyclists with the standard cliches of jumping lights, riding on pavements, don’t pay road tax etc. When we had early walked past in our Lycra we had probably triggered some subconscious anti cycling response as she clearly had forgotten we were there and didn’t pick up on the hints as her husband kept trying to change the subject. On the positive side my carrot cake was good, although Mrs Crusader found her lemon drizzle a bit dry, with our drinks being better than average.

Mid morning refreshments

Away from breakfasts and rants we were soon back on the road again. Sadly it was more of the same as we found ourselves on more busy road cycle paths.

Cycling on busy roads but fortunately most had cycle paths

Eventually we hit the sea again at Littlehampton and got to see our second pier of the day, which was enough to start a brand new pier based rating spreadsheet. This one was mainly pier with little entertainment on it, which is not a judgement just fact.

Littlehampton pier, the second of the day

Soon after, we arrived at the Sea Lane cafe for a late lunch. I had especially chosen it as it was on the seafront which is how Mrs Crusader likes her stops.

The Sea Lane cafe was absolutely rammed

There were nice views of the sea and the beach was quite quiet, probably because everyone was in the queue to get served at the cafe. A queue I found myself at the back off and it wasn’t for another half an hour until I made it to the front.

The beach was quiet and very hot

There had been an exceptional cake selection from which I had chosen banana sponge and a raspberry sponge for Mrs Crusader who was by now getting sunstroke guarding our beach side table.

Lunchtime cakes and drinks

My hot chocolate was a bit weak although the coffee scored well. The cakes looked better than they tasted being a bit too dense in texture. However all in all it was still of the highly recommended standard and goes into second place on my south coast seaside cafe competition. The trouble now was that the long wait to order followed by another long wait for lunch to turn up had meant that the chances of finding a cream tea had vastly diminished. Things were not helped by the energy sapping heat or the next section which went along the prom in Worthing. Dodging pedestrians on the shared pathway made for slow progress although there was another pier waiting for us at the end.

A good looking pier at Worthing

The final section was a slow combination of shared proms and cycleways though the Brighton area.

One of many shared proms we tackled today

As we melted away in the sun it took one last push to our final pier at Brighton where we found our hotel and both had a cold shower.

Final pier of the day at Brighton

During the end of our ride I had noticed the majority of tearooms were closing so was not optimistic about cream tea prospects but as Mrs Crusader showered a quick search on google revealed a late closing tea room nearby. We made a quick dash and got there just in time for last orders.

Managed a last orders cream tea

Over tea I asked if I had finally delivered a good cycling experience. It had been flat, we had only got a bit lost once, there had been hardly any bumpy bits and we had seen plenty of the sea. I was then informed she only likes the seaside in the winter when it is empty and dramatic. In the summer it’s too hot and crowded. Although slightly deflated I feel I’m getting closer and with cooler weather forecast for tomorrow and it being a Monday (who goes the sea side on a Monday) I still feel I have a chance.