I had planned to leave at 2pm, but an hour online to a Vodafone AI Agent to get access to my account to activate Roaming scuppered that, so I eventually left @3pm. It would have been even later if I had shown any genuine interest in a ‘too good to be true’ deal that, as I soon found out, would require me to change my number.

The first 20 miles down to Horsham was just another routine cycle for me so nothing to report except that it was warm at 25 degrees. After that it felt like the trip had started as I passed through Warninglid, Bolney, Hurstpierpoint and Hassocks thanks to a recommendation from Matt. That then brought me out at the foot of Ditchling Beacon for 6:30pm after 40 miles.

For old time’s sake I had planned to go over Ditchling Beacon where I had seen Stage 4 of the Tour de France in 1994. After cycling down from Hindhead Youth Hostel (where I recall having to climb in through a small toilet window the night before as we had been locked out) we saw local rider Sean Yates leading Lance Armstrong, yellow jersey Johan Museeuw and the rest of the peloton over the Category 4 climb. For the record, Wikipedia informs me that the climb is 0.9 miles with an average gradient of 9.1% and features ramps of up to 16%.

Ditchling had been bugging me a bit so it was nice to get up it ok, although it was a bit of a grind, but good training for what’s to come.

After Ditchling it was an easy 5 miles down to Brighton seafront where I joined the coastal Undercliff cycleway to Saltdean.

The rest of the ride to Newhaven was fairly uneventful on rough urban roads. Arriving @8:15 was later than planned and I still had the EES (Exit Entry System) Biometric checks to negotiate. However food was more important. After ordering wild mushroom vegan tagliatelle (with chicken) at the Bridge Inn, I met a fellow cyclist, having a pre-crossing beer. However, Carl was in another league of craziness. He had cycled from Paris and was now heading back. Had left Paris at 2:30am on Thursday morning caught 12 noon ferry to Newhaven, arrived at 4pm and then cycled to London for 9pm – 350km in a long day. He was now making his way back. He’d done a few other interesting things which was good for my ideas database.

Queuing for ferries is always tricky when you’re a cyclist. Seeing other cyclists queueing and with plenty of time I also joined the car queue which to to be fair was moving at a reasonable pace. I was therefore surprised to be joined by an elderly (queue jumping) couple on solo bikes loaded with kit. It turns out that they were both 77 from Scarborough and pottering down to Paris along the Avenue Verte. The man was particularly interested in my cholesterol-busting strategy given that he was vehemently against statins. I hope that I’m still as active as they are in later life.

After ticket / passport inspection, where thankfully the EES checks had not been introduced, for the first time ever I was directed with all other cyclists to a waiting room with toilets, vending machine and, best of all, power sockets. Then when we were called everyone charged out to get on the ferry and park their bikes. But given the way they are parked, first on is last off, so hopefully I should get a flyer tomorrow!

I then found another power socket on the ferry and hogged that while I updated WordPress, which is a brilliant cure insomnia ! I later found out that all seats had USB sockets, so comforted myself in the knowledge that I had at least been able to do some stretching.

So it had been a good start to the trip with 58 miles and 950m of climbing, but it would get harder.