Day 5: Horley to Hailsham

September 11, 2022

More Adventure Than We Bargained For

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Since today was Sunday, it seemed any breakfast options for us in the town would only open at 10:30 - way too late. This threw us back on the "breakfast" being offered by the hotel. Breakfast amounted to just toast and jam, but even here there were some weaknesses. There were no knives, and butter was also lacking. After a long while, we found a staffer, and got three knives and a handful of butter packets. Hooray! Actually he did eventually bring out some incredibly poor quality ham and cheese. This turned out to be the only food we would have for the rest of the day.

We set off, following the NCN 21, which was to lead through Gatwick, past Crawley, and then take us gaily down into Sussex. Now Gatwick is an airport, and we can not think of any airports that make it easy on bikes. But we wove in and out, back and around, following such signs as there were, and our GPS track, for three hours before emerging near Crawley. From that point it was not clear sailing, not at all. Rather the route continued to twist and turn, left side of road, right side of road, around the roundabout, up the path into the woods, through the hayfield, past the private road gates, etc. etc. I thought about counting just how many changes of direction were part of it, but there were hundreds.

The thing about hundreds of changes in direction is that you can not develop a cycling rhythm, or make much real progress. By mid-day we had covered fewer than 30 kilometers. Now we remembered something like this from our trip here in 2012. We had set out on the lovely sounding Thames Cycle Path, in the whole day had achieved just 15 km. Unbelievable, but true.

For today we had targeted a hotel/pub some 70 or more km from Horley. We had no option but to slog on. In slogging on, we were hoping to run into some easier/faster bits of the route, but no way. In fact the route got tougher. It changed to being nothing but moderate ups and downs, and it took us on single tracks and bridle paths and incredibly right through a gated hay field, to reach a single track by a highway - uphill of course.

By the time the light started to fail, we were nowhere near our destination. We phoned the hotel and told them we would be late - maybe 8 p.m. OK, they said, but call if it is going to be later than that. By 7 it was clear that 8 was not going to happen, so we called again. No answer. We called another 5 times in that hour, but no answer. All we could do was to carry on, and hope to raise someone when we arrived.

The final section was 15 km on a rail trail called the Cuckoo Trail. This was actually quite level and with a fairly decent surface. The only thing, the day ended and night arrived. Ok, we turned on our red flashers and used our headlights. But after 10 minutes, Dodie's headlight went out. We had charged it before leaving on the trip, but hey. We switched my headlight onto Dodie's bike and carried on, with me close behind so I could also see the path from the one light. This was fine for about an hour, when the second light quit. Reduced to the flashlight in my phone, we connected a spare battery to the headlight, but it would take some time to charge up a bit. And this model will not turn on while being charged.

So there we were, in the pitch black in the middle of some 15 km of dense forest, with likely nowhere to stay even if we reached somewhere. Optimistically I pointed out that even if we had to sleep "under our bikes", we still had some slightly warm clothes, planned for later in the trip. Dodie predicted more rationally that we were gonna freeze.

Into this scene casually strolled a dog walker, wearing a headlamp. We arranged to walk along with him, and told of the pub/hotel that now would not answer the phone. But the walker had an idea. Not too far off, by the big road, was a Travellodge, with 24 hour reception. I called them to see if they would have a vacancy, but only got some central corporate gobbledegook. We decided to abandon the pub/hotel and make a run for the Travellodge. We left the walker where our paths had to diverge, and he pointed us in the right direction.

Now that we were off the rail trail, there was a little bit of random street lighting. But there was also long stretches of darkness. We clung to the side of the road. I had found that one of the dead lights would turn on for 5 seconds, before giving up again, These brief bursts helped us to see what what coming up ahead, and to be visible briefly to oncoming cars.

When we reached the vicinity of the Travellodge, we could not find a way to get to it, could not even see how one would get to it. All access was designed for cars on the big road. But after circling a few times, we did find a way in. As promised, reception was open, meaning right away that at least we would not be spending a night in the forest.

And yes, they sort of had one room available! Sort of meant that the desk clerk could not just rent it to us. Rather we had to go onto the internet, book it, and pay for it by card online. Amazingly we achieved this, including that for once in their corporate life, CIBC did not elect to screw me up by declining the transaction, which would usually be on the grounds that what did I mean by being in England and tying to take a room in some sleazy Travellodge?

We rolled our bikes finally down the (rather dingy - what's with English hotels?) corridor and into the room. The room had only two plugs, and most things electrical that we had were by now discharged. What's more, one of our two bike battery chargers decided to die.

More adventure than we wanted? You bet. Our immediate first move is to shorten tomorrow's planned ride. We have been thinking of possible distances in Canadian or German terms. England, we think, resists actually using a bike to get anywhere. Next, tomorrow, when more rested and maybe more rational, we may cancel a bunch of upcoming bookings, and look to much shorter days.

That's the short version. Here following is the photo essay, that illustrates what we were talking about.

The Horley White House Hotel, not the breakfast hub of England!

Cycling near Gatwick. We came the wrong way on this and walked back beside the guard rail.

Near Crawley - light industry and car dealers. No bike lanes, of course.

Forest trail after Crawley - fork in the path unmarked.

At last we sort of broke out into a rural atmosphere.

Quite nice path, after about 15 km on the route

Actual other cyclists! These were part of a large London to Brighton race.

Yeah, they didn't exactly put this up for us!

But maybe they did put this one up for us.

East Grinstead had some neat stuff, like the Prime Meridian, but there was no signage for us to find it.

These iconic roofs are of an oast house - used for drying hops.

For several kms along one stretch, someone had mounted scarecrows.

This scarecrow had his head in a gopher hole! (See the gopher on the side?)

Much of the route was on small lanes, with tall hedges and lots of curves to conceal oncoming cars.

In fact you needed to go around the closed land, on this

But NCN 21 really wants you in the bush, along with its signs

Another unmarked fork in the road - this was common.

This was really rich, NCN really wanted us here. Necessary to access the nice bridle path they had waiting.

The final, Cuckoo Trail, was very nice, had it not been pitch dark!

I tried to follow Dodie's lead. That's her up ahead.

Our salvation - the open reception of the Travellodge.

Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 122 km (76 miles)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	11

Ben ParkeWell, that was quite an epic adventure. Glad you made it to a motel of at least some sort. And thank you for a good reminder of why I’ve never had an urge to cycle in England. Your description makes the worst sections of the Bodensee Königsee Radweg sound like a freeway.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonI’m so sorry your first day out was such a disaster. We never experienced anything quite like this, but then we never tried biking anywhere near London either. Hopefully you’ll find everything more manageable once you get further away from one of the largest cities in Europe. Also of course, don’t forget that the train is such a convenient option if you need to cut some distance somewhere.
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonSounds like a nightmare! You definitely should do shorter days. We usually didn’t average more than 6 or 7 miles an hour. We’ve found Great Britain the hardest bicycling we’ve done because of the constant ups and downs with very steep ups. The other day we had 23 percent climb and had a lot over 15 % but ride with gps and other mapping tools don’t know about them. We found these harder than steady climbs. Also, we found the NCN routes frequently took you on unpaved roads but not through fields. I hope things get better! Stay safe!
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1 year ago

Sue PriceOh my goodness! Not quite the adventure you had planned! I'm glad you found a safe place to spend the night and you are so wise to stop and rethink now rather than continuing to slog on too long. Hope the days get better!
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1 year ago

Kathleen ClassenWhat a day! We are so happy it ended with a bed for you to sleep in. We have always figured in a real panic we would park the bikes at the nearest police station and take a cab to a hotel. Beats sleeping under a bridge. About the electronics, it is my fervent wish that hoteliers would figure out how many devices need charging these days, although I suppose cycle tourers have a few more than most. Our hotel last night also had only two outlets, and in Setubal we had to use the one in the bathroom.
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1 year ago

Keith ClassenWow … that’s a day to remember or maybe forget. Glad it eventually worked out. Your days ahead can only get better.
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1 year ago

Leslie and Rob CookeWow! Quite the start to your trip. It must of been a huge relief in the end finding somewhere to stay. Hoping for easier days ahead.
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonAll's well that ends well, at least you had a roof over your heads. What a day! You are survivors! Kudos!
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1 year ago

Jill GelineauOmg! I’m impressed you have maintained your sense of humor after a day like that! It can only get better.
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsIf the number of available power outlets continues to be problematic, try looking for something that converts one to three. Mine has three standard outlets and also three USB sockets. It was very helpful several times on my trip.
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1 year ago

Keith AdamsOh, and also WOW what a day that must have been. One you will not soon forget, or at least not without a lot of expensive psychotherapy.
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1 year ago