Wednesday, 6th September 2023. Gatwick to Brighton. 48 kms.

   AM:  Well, it turns out that we don't need a local SIM. We had to just turn on the "International All Networks" function on the phone, in order to pick up WiFi via our Australian data roaming service. We'll find out whether it works when we set off this morning for Brighton.

   We have BBC morning show on the TV and it is flooding in Skiathos in Greece. The hot weather continues in the UK.

   PM:   The ride from Gatwick to our hotel in Brighton (Best Western Princes Marine) was 48 kms, and very hilly in places.

   There is one big ridge just before Brighton which eventually defeated me and I had to stop for a rest, and Les just sailed past me. Once we got over the top the views of the Sussex Downs were amazing, as was the long downhill ride into Brighton. There was a big golf course which had beautiful scenery from every fairway and every tee off point.

   Just before we arrived in Brighton, I started getting leg cramps which were very painful.

   The hotel is an amazing older building with sea views. It's still warm here and the hotel doesn't have any air conditioning - I suppose that there was no need for it in the days when it was built. There are still lots of young holiday makers around. I think that the schools start going back from Thursday on.

Tuesday, 5th September 2023. Gatwick.

    AM:  The weather is forecast for 31 Centigrade today, and warm all week. We are still both feeling shell-shocked from the flight. Les had a very bad night and we both woke up at 5.30 am.

   However, we are now feeling much better after a cup of tea, some yoghurt and some digestive biscuits.

   The WiFi reception in our room is very weak, which is frustrating. We're going to ride to Crawley today just to test our offline phone map efficiency, and make sure that there are no issues with the bikes.

   PM:   We've discovered that Google Maps and the other map apps won't work on my phone once we leave the hotel internet range! So, as soon as you go out, the navigation stops working (even though we downloaded South England on to our offline maps storage.) The only one that works is Maps.Me, so we used that. The problem is that it tried to send us along busy roads not suitable for bikes, and also the route it chose had been gated off by the extensions being done to the Airport Carparks. We spent a good hour and half trying to ride down to Aldi in Crawley. I think that Maps.Me would have done better if it hadn't been stymied by the unexpected construction works.

   Eventually, almost by accident we managed to find where Route 21 to Crawley came through the Airport area, and we were able to ride to Crawley to do some shopping at Aldi's.

   The bottom line is that we seem to have to buy a local SIM that provides universal WiFi coverage. We did 19 kms today.

This is the well-hidden path which is where Route 21 comes from London through Gatwick Airport on it's way to the South Coast.

These metal cast signs are dotted all over the country along the Sustrans routes.

Monday 4th September 2023 - Arrival in London Gatwick Airport.

    We had quite a bit of a scare when we went to hand in the two bike boxes at the  " Oversize" counter at Perth Airport. They were just slightly too wide to go on to the conveyor belt.

   Fortunately, the man had seen these Schiphol Airport bike boxes before and he knew that if he just jumped them past the first conveyor, they would then fit on the main conveyor which sent them off to the baggage handlers.

   The two flights (Perth/Doha and Doha/London Gatwick) were as unpleasant as expected. We noticed that there were a lot of school age children on the plane from Doha, and then we realised that the schools and universities all finish their summer holidays this week. The plane was packed full.

   Anyway, we arrived at Gatwick, collected our boxes from "oversize" and re-assembled the bikes in the exit lobby. The boxes were a bit battered, but the bikes were okay. It took me an hour to rebuild the bikes. We then only had to walk our bikes out of the Airport and over the road to the hotel. We are keeping them in our hotel room as agreed by the staff, and there is enough room.

   We're staying at the Premier Inn North Terminal, while we gather our senses and prepare to set off. So far, the jetlag doesn't seem to be too bad. In our experience, it is always much worse when you fly from West to East for some reason.

   The weather is very warm here, much warmer than the weather that we left behind in Perth.

      The English TV is very good here, if you are carefully selective.

     

                                 Speedo reading before we start the UK ride.

Plans to cycle along the South Coast of England.

 August 2023.  Ash:

Our cycle touring plans have been postponed for quite a while by the Covid restrictions,  but we are now planning to fly to Gatwick in early September to cycle along the South coast for five weeks. 

  I had to buy a new non-electric bike,  because the ebike batteries are not allowed on aircraft.  We could have had the battery couriered separately,  but Les prefers to ride on her push bike, so we decided go non-electric. 

  I could have hired an ebike in England, but it is very hard to find a rental bike that suits my height (6'5). As it was, I had to spend quite a lot of effort on my new bike to raise the stem and buy new handlebars and adjust settings to make it comfortable. 

  The new bike is the Lekker Amsterdam XL, which just fits me after all the adjustments. It has the carbon fibre belt drive and the Shimano internal 8 speed geared hub which means that there is almost no maintenance required. 

   I have done over 2000 kms on it, and it is now comfortable for me.  When I first started riding it after my ebike, it was quite a lot harder especially on the hills, but I'm back up to speed now. 

   

                      The new Amsterdam bike as it came out of it's delivery box.

Tuesday 19 April, 2021. Perth to Mandurah and return 160 kms

   After a lot of local cycling, we decided to ride to Mandurah and spend a few days. The ride there was 90 kms and when we set off in the morning, we were tootling along at about 25 KPH. Then, when we were on the last 10 kms, we were down to about 10 KPH. We were glad to arrive at our hotel (Atrium Hotel), but also pleased to achieve a pretty good distance, especially because Les was riding her original Scott bike and not her E-bike. There was also a steady headwind blowing, which slowed us down, but also helped to keep us cool.

      Mandurah is a very nice peaceful holiday destination, with lots of cycle paths up and down the coast and around the beach areas. We rode from Mandurah down the coast to the Dawesville cut, which is where the Peel inlet reaches the sea. Lots of lovely views and nice homes.

   When we were cycling back to Perth on the Thursday, and just near Rockingham, we got a phone call from one of our sons to tell us that there were rumours that there had been a Covid case discovered, and that Perth was going to go into lockdown.  So we cycled straight to Rockingham train station, and caught the train to Perth City station and shot into the city Woolworths, bought some eggs and yoghurt and raced home. The three day lockdown was announced shortly after, so we got back just in time.