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Published: July 12th 2023
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Day 11.5 - Plans Change Part I
Still in Chichester it's dinner time, Greek food - yum! We have to decide if we want to avoid Dover and Calais as we have an opportunity to catch a ferry from Newhaven (tomorrow's destination) to Dieppe in France if we want to. The conversation is robust and no decision is made over dinner. Instead we go back to our room and first try to book accommodation in Newhaven. That's where we hit our first snag - we couldn't find anything that suited us at all (2 beds, plus bike storage). The only things available were way out of town or way too expensive.
We restarted the conversation about going to Dieppe on the ferry. We looked at available ferries - we could get on a ferries at either 5pm or 11pm for a 4 hour 30 minute crossing.
Decision time!
We booked a ferry crossing for 11:00pm. We didn't know if we would make it in time for the 5pm ferry. We'll sleep on the ferry, arrive in France just before 4:00am and wing it from there.
What could possibly go wrong!
Day 12 - Plans Change Part
II
We have about 70kms to do today, and a late depart from Newhaven on the ferry so we're in no rush this morning. We have a hot breakfast at the hotel before heading off about 9am. The first 2 hours are uninspiring. We're on bike paths mainly, but on roads with lots of traffic. It's not until we get to Ferring that things begin to change.
After a coffee stop we finally divert to the coast road. Wow! The whole of the English Channel opened up to our right (south). The wind had picked up by now in what proved to be a very windy day. As school holidays have not started yet it certainly wasn't crowded but there were still people out enjoying the day. At one spot there must have been at least 20 windsurfers in the water.
We passed through Worthing, Lancing and Shorham-by-the-sea (I love English names) before getting to Brighton. Brighton looks as if it would be a hotspot for holiday makers. There is a large pier with an amusement park on it just like Santa Monica pier in LA. Lot's of grand old buildings too.
Our route took us
Brighton Palace
Amusement Park on the pier at Brighton off the promenade and onto the street about 9kms from Newhaven. The guy who sold me lunch advised us to stay on the promenade and ride under the cliffs as far as possible. This proved to be good advice. Riding under the cliffs provided great views and saved quite a bit of undulating road up above.
We finally climbed back up the top about 5kms out of Newhaven and made our way slowly into town. The almost gale force winds (35+ km/h) at our backs all day had made this a very easy ride. Even leaving late and taking our time we had reached Newhaven by 2:30pm and our ferry wasn't leaving til 11pm.
Jeff suggested we try and get the earlier ferry leaving at 5pm. We hustled to the ferry terminal and for a small admin fee we rebooked onto the earlier ferry. On board, before leaving harbour, we had booked accommodation in Dieppe, France. Deal Done!
Tomorrow we are in my favourite country (outside of Australia). The land of Patisseries and Boulongeries - what could be better.
Obviously our route has now changed, something we need to discuss tonight.
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