Day 20: Chichester to Lancing, UK: Emma and Stuart Taylor!

June 8, 2012

We set off from the Premier Inn, manoeuvering our bikes one at a time out of the small elevator (err, "lift"). The girl at the desk asked if everything had been fine, and we answered "Sure". We know there is nothing she can do to change an outfit that tries to emulate a US chain, but falls down on price, internet, breakfast, toiletries in the room, number of towels, etc. etc. Hey, we are not the ugly Americans here - they are!

Maybe you can believe some of what you read in the paper. The forecast had been for 70 mph winds, and this certainly came true. We set off amid really howling winds, and these kept up unabated for the whole day. Naturally, the Sustrans route disappeared early, and in a continued effort to avoid the deadly main roads we found ourselves wandering about a capillary system of small lanes.

We spot some nice cottages on the way to Bognor Regis

Crews were out working on wind downed trees.

With some asking for directions and some SatNav-ing, we made our way into Bognor Regis.

Bognor has some of that classic seafront housing

We bypassed this hotel for tea outside Bognor because it looked costly and had no place for us to watch the bikes.

In the high street of Bognor we looked for a bit of food someplace where we could secure the bikes against the wind and keep an eye on them too. "Poppins" seemed to fit the bill, though we were turned off by the waitress coming out to try to kick us away from their storefront unless we might be actual customers. Inside, the waitress and another guy (owner? waiter?) tried rushing us into ordering. Grrr. Our first order of business was to use one of the mobiles to phone Emma and Stuart. They had emailed that they might be able to meet up with us this day.

The food at Poppins, once we did order, decreased the high scores we have been giving British food. Dodie's baked potato was somehow suffused with butter through and through, and my egg came with deep fried toast. Later, Stuart said that fried toast can be good. This was not. Reminds me of the first time our bacon was deep fried - somewhere in Montana.

However "Poppins" in town was pretty much rock bottom.

We proceeded to take advantage of the pedestrian shopping area - adding money to our cell phones and buying a minimal 40 pounds worth of internet for emergency use on the continent. (A complete internet cost story will follow, sometime).

The high street pedestrian mall at Bognor Regis

My sunglasses had blown away in the gale today, and I replaced that $30 pair with a seemingly just as good 1 pound one from the Pound store. The cost was actually 2 pounds, because I could not resist the giant Toblerone.

The "Pound Store" had giant Toblerone for ... one pound.

Dodie chats with Trevor and Chris near the Pound Store. Our Canadian flag stickers are triggering lots of questions.

We continued along the coast, passing through one town after another, though not exactly all that quickly. The wind was at our backs, which helped. Not knowing where the route went and/or using dangerous roads, did not.

With the wind blasting, the Channel was wild and the seafront bracing

The plaque on this pub in Littlehampton says that poet, painter, visionary William Blake (1757-1827) was arrested in this doorway for making seditious remarks to a soldier billeted at the inn.

At Yapton we spotted the Lamb Inn. It made us think of John Byrne, whose blog we are following. He left his Mrs. (the Lamb) back in Hawaii.

Thatch is not just for "quaint" pubs and such here. Rather it is used fairly often, sort of like cedar shakes are at our home.

Pasties ... we could be back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (where they are sold everywhere))

The wind continued strong all day. In a John Denver song, "the wind is the whisper of our mother, the earth". Well, today she was a real nag, bugging us by making it hard to stay on the path, and throwing my bike down when my back was turned.

This was a costly photo. I took my hand off the bike to shoot it, and a gust of wind sent the bike flying. My mirror was smashed, and brake lever broken. Smartphone hit the pavement but came through unscathed.

Beachside housing at Worthing is so similar to that at Bognor

We continued exchanging texts and phone calls with Emma, as she and Stuart drew closer on their drive down from Manchester. Meanwhile we were blasting along a coastal path, with the wind at our backs.

NCN Route 2 finally materialized in a beachside path. The wind down here pushed us at 25 kph with no pedalling at all. It felt like having an electric bike.

You can buy one of these miniature beach houses.

When finally Emma and Stuart were close enough that we could designate a definite meeting place, we could barely make out their call over the wind. What we did understand was that we would need to leave the coastal path and backtrack into the wind. Leaving the path was a bit of a chore, because we could only find steps. However our bikes are not so heavy that we can not carry them, so not much of a problem really.

After getting the call from Emma and Stuart, we have to find a way off the beach path

Emma and Stuart had driven 7 hours down from Manchester, it turns out just to see us. We were flabbergasted and honoured by this. On the other hand, quite strong bonds can form among Crazyguys, and we had also been prepared to travel to Manchester to meet up with them.

Emma and Stuart are serious and experienced cyclists, and we had a dandy time comparing notes on ... everything. We also found them to be wonderful people all around. One aspect of this is the resilience they are showing in the face of Emma's serious injury and the (hopefully temporary) end of their four year cycling dream. I am sure that I would be nowhere near this balanced if a sudden end came to our own little four month dream.

Dodie, Emma, and Stuart with our two tents. The Swedish Hilleberg tent is really excellent with a huge amount of vestibule space.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 568 km (353 miles)

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