Brisbane to Barcelona: Hitchin to Harwich

Saturday 13 - Friday 19 August 2011

Saturday was our planned packing day, we went food shopping and took the bikes for a shakedown ride around to the Windmill pub, unfortunately we missed the turn off and ended up riding up a fairly major road in the wrong direction. We eventually made it and cooled our tempers off with beer. Lawrie got to pat a pet duck, Phillip, who even had his own nappy & harness. Interestingly, not a custom made item!

Bikes at The Windmill pub.

Goose in the beer garden.

...he wouldn't stand still for a photo.

Mike and Lawrie enjoying beer.

We relaxed that evening and woke up on Sunday ready to go, or at least Lawrie did. Kitty wasn't feeling the best with an upset stomach so we put the bikes together ready to go in the afternoon. Loaded up, with all the weight at the rear the bikes were very flighty and downright dangerous. We decided to leave on Monday & went shopping for a set of front panniers and racks for Lawries bike. All fitted up the bikes were much better balanced so we were ready to go! Interestingly, we found Ortlieb panniers for sale in The Netherlands for only €5 more, bummer!

10kg on the front helped the balance.

Monday morning we actually got a fairly early start on our ride. First stop was to head towards Sawbridgeworth, where we could pick up one of the National Cycle Routes nearby. We didn't have a very detailed map, and we got lost in Stevenage for almost an hour, but we made it out of there and stopped for lunch at The Bell in Bennington, only 20km away! The food was great but we ate too much and drank too many beers so it was a slow start getting back on the bikes. We got lost a few more times and finally made it into Sawbridgeworth, where we set up camp and finally got to test out all our new gear!

Off we go!

Kitty pushing her bike up one of the many
hills we encountered the first day

Patchwork English countryside

Cool old church in Bennington

The Bell

Sweet beer garden

Lunchtime!

Town close to Sawbridgeworth

Yum... veges and lentils

On Wednesday we packed up and found our way to the NCN (National Cycle Network) Route 16. It was dirt, which we weren't expecting but it was nice not to have to get a map out every five minutes. The route followed an old railway line so it was pretty flat too. We had lunch in Rayne and kept going to Witham. We were aiming for Wickham Bishops but our inexperience was starting to show and we were both tired. There was no camping in Witham so we spent the night at the local pub, which was very nice and we even got to have a hot bath!

Lawrie on NCN 16

Kitty on NCN 16

On Thursday, we decided to give ourselves a bit of a break and only rode 30km to Colchester. This was probably a smart idea because we'd just set our tent up and it started to pour and it didn't let up until the morning. The ride itself was pretty easy - we followed the 16 to Tiptree, it was all signed pretty well once we got out of Witham, and from Tiptree we followed the NCN 1 all the way to Colchester.

Gardens where we stopped for tea en route

About to head off again after tea

Another cool wooded section on the way to
Colchester

Camp in Colchester

Friday was our last day on English soil. We left around 10am and had an easy ride, following the NCN 1 and 51 all the way to Harwich. We did get a little lost in Colchester town because our map said we should be following the NCN 1 but it was all signposted as NCN 51. After we solved that problem, it was fine. We stopped for lunch at The Fat Goose, about 10km outside Harwich where we had a long, relaxing lunch. We got into Harwich around 2:30pm and were lucky to get a free walking tour of the town from a man called Brian. We had a dinner and checked in for our ferry to Holland. The ferry was HUGE! It looked like a cruise ship and we got to ride our bikes up and into the vehicle deck. Very cool. We got into our cabin, which was just like a hotel room and slept until we reached the Netherlands.