Day 2 - so far so good

My trusty iPhone tells me we did 37.78 miles today, which is a fair bit less than the 51.7 which googlemaps calculated. You can draw your own conclusions about which is likely to be more accurate...

Keith Ford & pudding!!

Anyway, we had a good day, meeting up with a couple of friends of Don's, Keith & Chris, who helped us navigate our way across Kent, first through the Weald with a stop for lunch at the Cock Inn, which is a great real ale pub at Boughton Monchelsea (many thanks to them for the donation), then down to the Medway at Waterbury, and up onto the North Downs at Trottiscliffe (which is pronounced Trosley - obviously!) via a bugger of a hill. I will leave it to Don to divulge how many times he had to get off his bike today to walk up a hill.

(Don:- Septugenarian Keith Ford, an old Morris mate and a serious cyclist put me to shame. After having to walk up Ulcombe Hill, I then had to get off and push up the long drag on seven mile lane (which, I had to point out to Martin, is 7 miles long - having also enlightened him on the previous day at Lydd that there are five Cinque Ports!!).   After Chris Russell (current Squire of Wadard Morris) took over as our guide, Trottiscliffe Hill was always going to be a killer and he also demonstrated his skills by cycling most of the way without hands - and still kept his teeth!!)

Chris Russell approaching Stansted
(Kent, not Essex)
who needs handlebars??

The assembled company in the Ship, Southfleet

Then on to Tony & Wynne's at Southfleet for an excellent meal, followed by a morris men reunion in the pub for Don, and blogmeistering duties for yours truly.

Tomorrow we have to negotiate the Dartford Tunnel then cycle through Essex all the way to Royston, a total of 70 miles. Must look out the anti-chafing gel...