Not Far Out of Groombridge...

Avenue Verte, Day Three : Groombridge to Newhaven

We skipped the Full English and set out early – and it turned out to be a long day so we were glad we did. Things were pretty hilly too, early on, though it evened out a bit after we’d paused for a picnic at the Waitrose at the start of the Cuckoo Trail. It was mostly under tree cover then too, which kept off the worst of the sun. At Seaford we cycled up a hard – and as it turned out, unnecessary – hill to a clifftop Nature Reserve but luckily there was a van at the top serving decent coffee and very good cake! Then we went back down, took the correct turn and cycled along the esplanade, where we should have stopped for fish and chips. Instead we pushed on to Newhaven, which was a bit grim and ended up very early to the ferry port, where we drank coffee from a machine and chatted (well, Beck mainly chatted, I grunted occasionally) to our fellow touring cyclists. There was lots of queuing and waiting around but at least we got to ride our bikes onto the boat, which was cool. We had a hurried meal and a hurried shower and tried to get a couple of hours sleep to justify the cost of the cabin…