Rye; Saturday, 18 September, 2021

As the whole area, apart from the towns of Rye and Winchelsea, is a marsh down at sea level I’d decided that I’d hire a bike for the day and go exploring – helped by a large number of completely segregated cycle paths making this a pleasant option, without much need to cycle on actual roads.

I’d found a cycle hire company online that was based in the town, and had a pop-up collection point about 10 minutes walk from the hotel, and to make things even easier they hired out eBikes, so I could go some distance with very little effort.

I picked up the bike from the pick-up point and headed off first towards the coast at Camber Sands. This wide bay is effectively the last bay on the South coast as it sits between the cliffs of Fairlight and Hastings and Dungeness, beyond which the coast starts to head North forming the bottom right corner of Great Britain. The wide sweeping bay with a mix of sand and shingle is well know for it’s beach as well as the winds that make it a good place for Kite surfing – and even early on a Saturday morning there were a number of people already out on the water.

From Camber I carried on cycling, crossing the border from East Sussex into Kent – physically notable by the distinct improvement in the surface quality of the cycle path once into Kent (in marked contrast to the road surface the bus had gone over the previous day where East Sussex was significantly better). I continued on into Lydd and then turned to the south to cycle down to Dengemarsh and one of the weirdest locations in England.

The road itself helps set the scene, starting as a regular street in Lydd, before becoming a single track road, then the tarmac runs out and it just becomes concrete paving, before even that runs out and the track becomes a washboard rutted shingle track until you reach the beach. Dengemarsh beach is located at the back of the Dungeness Nuclear Power plant, and between Dengemarsh and Dungeness you pass the most southerly point in Kent as the cost starts it slow turn north. The area is also the point that the Dengemarsh Sewer exits into the sea. Whilst this may sound unpalatable – it’s actually the river that helps to drain water from the Romney Marsh and stop the area flooding – so it’s only marsh water that it’s dumping straight into the English channel at this point.

From Dengemarsh I cycled back through to Lydd where I stopped for a quick lunch and then on back past Camber and Rye before heading down into Rye harbour, now several miles from the town it shares it name with. Even from the harbour its still another good half mile following the course of the River Rother before you finally reach the sea again. At the end of nearly 15 miles cycling I was less than 5 miles due east of where I’d stood on the Dengemarsh beach 90 minutes earlier.

I followed the coastal track along the back of the beach and continued cycling on to the neighbouring town of Winchelsea Beach before heading back across the marsh towards Rye. By now I’d done just over 30 miles of cycling, quite a bit of it with battery assist on, and consequently I’d drained the batter, so for the final mile and a half back into the centre of town I was on my own with no assistance. Thankfully, for most of the way it was flat with the wind behind me, so it wasn’t too much effort to make it back to the cycle hire cabin.

I’d spent nearly 7 hours cycling, and even with the battery assistance I had still done a fare amount of exercise (you do still have to peddle, just not put as much work in to keep the wheels turning), and I was feeling quite sweaty, so I headed back to the hotel for a shower and some nice clean clothes.

I made the mistake of sitting down for a little while after my showers, so it was a painful experience to get moving again a little later when I went out to grab a quick dinner in a very nice Indian restaurant at the top of the town.