I felt apprehensive and excited about setting off today. I love the feeling of not knowing what I might encounter and the “what ifs” associated with a journey. Only 2000km and a lot of unknowns to come. In the end this was a ridiculously easy day and the start of me thinking “I’m really not pushing myself here am I?”.

Today’s route and stats

• 432m climbing

• 2h 57m elapsed

• 18th July 2018, 22°C sunny

• 35.07km (plus a few km in Calais)

• 2h 18m moving

• 65% off-road

Today’s route followed the official Via Francigena path all the way apart from a few kilometres at the end of the day. It’s also an official national trail in the UK so I can also say I cycled the North Downs Way.

Canterbury to Dover GPX file

Red line - the route I took, Orange line - “official” Via Francigena, Blue line - a random looking line linking Sigeric’s stops.

Departure and packing problems

Got up had breakfast. Took the bike across the road from the hotel and tried to get everything packed away.

I could immediately sense a few issues on the packing side.

I really hadn’t thought a great deal about packing despite reading about the packing nightmares that most of the walkers on the Via Francigena seem to have: many of them seem to throw away most of their gear as they go; I somewhat expect to find people dressed like Dobby the House Elf when I get to Rome.

Since I was only travelling for 5 days I felt that I could handle anything with my clever mix of bikepacking bags:

• A home made handlebar pack which, because I’d made it, I thought should only have very light stuff in it: so it contained a pair of trainers; there wasn’t much space for anything else.

• An Apidura Expeditition Saddle Pack (14L) into which went most of my clothes of which it would turn out I’d taken far too many.

• An Apidura Expedition Top Tube Pack (1L) that could easily be accessed for things like money, phone charger etc.

• My Osprey day backpack into which went “far too much”: firstly the bike bag that I use for transporting the bike (1.3kg), then all the spare tubes, toolkit stuff etc. (another kg or two), waterproofs, various electronics, some more clothes and finally food for lunch (and emergencies).

I could immediately feel far too much of the weight was in my backpack but there was no going back now.

The first stop was the cathedral for the obligatory departure photo. I imagined a really nice photo with a sweeping vista of the ancient building in the background, but unfortunately it’s being repaired (and probably will be for many years) and hence the odd background of graffiti-ready fencing.

A quick note that you can pick up the Via Francigena Passport / Credentials from the shop/office at the cathedral and you can get in for free for your photo and a quick look around (normally it costs $$ to get into the cathedral precinct).

Off road to Dover

Taking Pilgims Way, yep it really is called that, out of Canterbury I followed the official walking route almost all of the way to Dover. This route is apparently the North Downs Way and isn’t strictly open to cycling.

It was during a dry period of weather so the paths were hard and flat despite being through fields most of the way. I’d recommend this to just about any kind of bike in the dry. There isn’t much climbing and you stay off the roads most of the time.

I took a slight deviation at the end to avoid being on roads and to see more of the town centre, but that meant I did miss the Castle and the views from it.

Dover and the ferries

I was expecting Dover to be a bit like my hometown, Blackpool, but it’s actually somewhat nicer in a Southern England kind of way. Anyhow didn't stop there for long since was heading straight down to the port.

Taking the bike on the ferry was pretty easy even though the place isn't in anyway designed for bikes. Just head to one of the ticket offices for bikes/special cargo. They weren't very busy so got a free choice of which ferries to take. Then just cycle to the car lanes and wait... there were no other cyclists so just laid the bike down on the road in front of the ferry ramps and went to check out the facilities. Though when I returned there were a bunch of cars waiting behind me.

I loved the feeling of driving up onto the ferry as one of the first on, then parking right at the front and locking up... simple as that.

So apart from a few km in Calais sightseeing, that was the cycling "done" for the day. I was surprised how easy it was but then again most "cyclists" wouldn't think much of 35km in a day.

First impressions of Calais

The port is a little way out of town and you have to cycle for a km or so east away from town before you then double back and cycle basically on the other side of the port fencing back into town along some pretty good bike paths… only spoiled by this:

Got to see my favourite statue: Rodin's The Burghers of Calais depicting the leaders of Calais who surrendered themselves, expecting to be executed, to the English in 1346 in order to save the town. It has a real sense of sad inevitability about it, the expressions and body language of the subjects really tell the story; you can feel something terrible is happening to them and around them. An interesting fact is that under French law there can only be 12 casts of a Rodin statue; I’ve seen this statue also in The Glypotek in Copenhagen and outside the Houses of Parliament in the London. So 3 down, 9 to go.

Places to stay in Calais

La Clé d'Opale

A really decent B&B. Wonderful room, fantastic host and a great breakfast. I’d stay here again. 100% recommended. UPDATE: It seems that its closed down post-pandemic. A real loss.