Photo: It was no Battle, a nice easy ride in East Sussex and Kent

Imagine moving to an area you have never lived in, have no connection to, know no one, have only visited a couple of times and oh, it’s in another country. To be fair the other country is our home country.

After a 25 year adventure in Italy (not quite over as we haven’t sold our house there yet) we decided to return to the UK. We cancelled our residency on the longest day of the year and left. Arriving in East Sussex on Sunday the 22nd June.

On the following Sunday I was out riding with Tenterden Cycle Club.

One of the reasons we chose this area is to be in woodland, near the sea and within an hour of London by train. Tenterden ticks all those boxes, and has a friendly cycling club.

They guided me through the stunning country lanes and then to the coast with a lovely café stop along the way.

The only controversy of the day was “Do we have ice cream before the climb to Fairlight or at the top?”. One rider wanted to stop before the climb (a preward) whilst most of us preferred to get the climb done first (reward). We settled for the reward.

Delicious ice cream with (L-R) Matt, Liz, Peter, Joe, Lisa (ride leader) and Sue.

What you really don’t want on your first ride with a new club is to restart after a stop and discover a puncture. I felt bad about holding them up but at least Lisa said “That’s the quickest puncture repair I’ve ever seen”. All those inner tube changes over the years meant I had the experience not to hold them up for too long.

With a welcome tailwind we made good speed along the Pett Levels to Rye.

At Rye Castle I said my goodbyes to head home.

The cottage we’re renting is 20km from the start/finish of TCC rides but that’s no distance for an audaxer.

As I wrote on Strava:

“My thanks to Lisa (Ride Leader), Joe, Liz, Matt, Peter & Sue for a wonderful ride through the stunning East Sussex and Kent countryside and along the coast. A joy to ride with such nice people.”

I think we made a good choice of where to live.

Strava Stats