Friday 7th June
At Arundel in a very nice hostel in the countryside just outside of the chocolate box town. Got here at about 7 O'Clock last night after meeting with Andy (Thatman) at Epping Forest hostel. Made a big boo boo with my booking in Epping and had booked for 5th May instead of 5th June but fortunately they had a whole dorm to spare for me. After introductions we set off to the Dartford tunnel and although the M25 was free flowing it isn't exactly a scenic route, neither are the anonymous towns we passed through. Finally left the urban sprawl and stopped for brunch, courtesy of Andy, cheers mate, and continued along the coast. At about 12 O'Clock it started to spit with rain so we decided to don wet gear and a good job too as the rest of the journey was pretty awful. Andy has entered the 'Round Britain Rally' so we stopped at Saltburn so he could photograph the water balance lift and from there made our way to Rye Harbour for another photo. Just as we were leaving there the heavens opened and the local drains couldn't cope so there was a lot of standing water that needed to be avoided. I had problems with my visor misting so was pussy footing round corners, I can corner better than that Andy, honest. After a while I decided to make direct for the hostel where I parted with Andy who was off for another photo shoot. The last hour or so of the ride was in sunshine so despite a wet day it ended well.
I rustled up some food at the hostel and bought a bottle of wine and sat out side enjoying the peace, quiet and wildlife. Struck up a conversation with another chap (Wolfgang) and a while later two sisters joined and we proceeded to put the world to rights with the help of alcohol. Hic!
Saturday 8th June
I am now in the local library having to pay for the Internet but at least it's reasonable at £1.25 for half an hour. Have bought some seafood and salad stuff for diner tonight, my diet has not been the best to date with arriving late at hostels and just knocking up pasta, rice and a sauce or similar.
Back to the hostel shortly to refrigerate food and do some mundane chores such as laundry and cleaning the visor on my helmet. This pm I shall go back up the coast to the part of the route I missed yesterday.
1 O'clock a group of families and their 13 strong army of the dead arrived and created havoc for the weekend, just as I was about to catch up on some missed sleep so driven out of the hostel I decided to go back along the coast but only made it as far as the outskirts of Brighton and turned back. Being a glorious sunny day every man and his dog and hordes of weekend bikers cluttered the roads so much it was almost impossible to move, even on a bike, so I gave up and went back to Arundel. Discovered that one of the families had decided my food and stuff would be better off in another fridge, I remedied that by dumping their crap on the counter and returning my stuff to where it was.
On Sunday Brian G turned up and we went for a ride on local roads where Brian treated me to a pub lunch with glorious views over the river and stopping at Boxhill on the way back.
