Rob and Anna's travel adventure: Southern England

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Southern England - cycling adventure begins

Anna's entry:

We are finally off cycling! This is the third cycling around Europe trip for Rob, and the first one for me. As it turns out I am starting with a hard part - cycling on the left side of the road. Despite of the traffic and intensity of learning the traffic rules typical of England, believe it or not, I actually enjoyed it.

We passed through many English villages, and the further we got away from London, the friendlier people became. We saw a lot more smiles, more people approached us with questions about us and our travel, and people would always take their time to help us with directions. We travel with a few detailed maps, but cycling routes are still limited in England, so we had to rely on the suggestions from the locals, which worked really well for us. I am also very impressed with Rob's sense of direction, it is almost intuitive for him, and that in itself makes it so much easier for me. I feel that with his great abilities to navigate we can not get lost, or at least not for a long time.

We passed through Guildford south of London, and I felt like it was a town from a fairytale - so pretty, with English cottages, beautiful rose gardens, parks, and friendly people. I really enjoyed cycling through the area, even though at times cycling with all the traffic was stressful.

Our first night we camped in one of the village farms, we were the only campers, so the entire place belonged just to the two of us. It was so peaceful there, with birds singing and little bunnies running from one rye field to another. The next morning was not as idyllic though... To avoid the intense traffic, we decided to follow the way to the cycling route. To get there, we had to climb three walls and carry our loaded bikes over three bridges. Got some scratches and my first bruises on the legs - bike is heavy, and sometimes I can not balance the load when there is an obstacle I have to climb over. But, we made it OK eventually, and made it to our next camping stop. The camping was an upgrade, we even had hot water and a kitchen! But, we are still eating the cold food (have not had a chance to encounter the fuel for our camping stoves). So, for now lots of "hand food" - brie cheese, naan bread, humus, and chocolate. :)

We cycled for a few days until we reached Portsmouth, UK - our crossing point for the English channel. A few miles away from Portsmouth, a kind young English boy on a bicycle offered to show us the cycling way to town. So, we followed him all the way. And, then an older lady, also on a bike, offered us to follow her because she knew a safe way to the pier without being on a busy road. The biking was slow, but we enjoyed our little detour with her. :)

We made it to Portsmouth, and bought our ferry ticket for the night crossing of the English channel to La Havre, France. The crossing was about 7 hours, and we got a relatively good sleep in our sleeping bags on the floor (some other passengers did the same, so we fit right in).

We had several home stays with French families planned, so we had to push on to get there on time.