Kent Oast House

Dover - Shetlands Day 2
Distance cycled: 104.6km
Ascent: 1334m

Highlight: arriving at my AurBnB, in a taxi which was needed for last 15km of the journey as daylight was running out and my main light battery had also run out. I was fairly exhausted anyway having set new PBs for both distance & ascent, so taxi was a treat (and hopefully a one off). Don't let the euphemism 'rolling chalk downs' fool you - there are an awful lot of short sharp hills in these parts.

Lowlight: a toss up between the 20mins spent trying escape Dover's other world one way system or a sudden loss of energy and mild nausea as I closed in on the 100km mark (presumably insufficient calory intake, despite my best efforts).

Anything else? Important learning is to keep accommodation flexible and book on the day for the rest of the trip. Having pre-booked my place in Forest Row near East Grinstead, I was obliged to get there, which proved a step too far with my new start point (Dover instead if Canterbury, adding both distance & ascent).

Photo: classic oast house found in Kent & Sussex, which I found a few hundred yards down a wrong turn. So something good came from that.