GLORIOUS RIDE

This month we’re off to Kent.

Kent isn’t normally the first place you think of when you think Great British ride. ‘The garden of England’ is more often thought of as London’s front yard these days; concreted over into off-road parking for 45 tonne juggernauts waiting to cross the English Channel. But the south east isn’t all choked roads, housing estates and Amazon warehouses – there are still plenty of places to discover on two wheels.

The Weald (meaning wood, though there’s not much left) is the lower ground that reaches from the North Downs in the north of Kent across to the South Downs in Sussex. Or think of it as the bit south of the M20 with the towns of Rye, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Ashford at the four corners.

The pleasure in riding in the Weald is the simple wafting along of it. Its not about sweeping bends and big views, but drifting through ancient villages with random stops for a cup of tea and slice of cake.

Coming into the area from London I drop off the M20 at Leeds Castle or Ashford and then drift down the A274, or wriggle down B-roads towards Tenterden. The A28 between Ashford and Hastings is best avoided but there are lots of back roads to explore, though on a sportsbike they might be a bit hard on your wrists.

When I’ve been down this way it’s been on adventure bikes and retros; it’s nice to be able to cruise along and look over the hedges and into the fields. The main weekend meeting point for riders in the area seems to be Rye, where there’s a cafe and a chip shop which attract a lot of summer business, and from here you can do a nice loop of a ride starting on the A259 heading east. Follow the road for eight miles to the roundabout at Brenzett, and then head towards New Romney, and then turn right again to Lydd.

The reason for the journey is to visit the south east’s one true wilderness – the strange, eerie expanse of stones and sky at Dungeness. It’s one of the biggest shingle beaches in Europe – a vast stretch of pebbles with flooded gravel pits behind forming part of a nature reserve. And all this under the shadow of a lighthouse and two nuclear reactors (one active, one mothballed). From there it’s a short blast along the bumpy but twisty Jury’s Gap road that leads past Camber Sands, with miles of golden beach. It’s a good place to stop for an ice cream or, if you’re brave, a dip in the English Channel.

Continue along the coast for Beachy Head, where the South Downs fall off a cliff into the English Channel. The roads leading up to the cliffs make for good riding though at weekends there’s a lot of traffic.

» WHY GO? Go for an ice cream, go for a bun, go to check on the height of the tide, the colour of the sand or whether the heather is in bloom. Go because you’ve never been there, or because you liked it last time you went. Go because you can. Go because it may not be there next time. Go because the sun is shining or because it’s a Tuesday. Go from Devon to Yorkshire to fill a flagon. Go to Eccles for a cake or Melton Mowbray for a pork pie. There’s a great fish and chip shop in Ullapool.

» WHEN AND HOW? Go now, go tomorrow, go in five minutes. Go next Wednesday or go on 15 July. Go at every possible opportunity, or go on a special occasion. » GETTING THERE Take the high road, take the low road, take the long way, take the fast way, take a short cut, take a detour. Whatever you do, go by motorcycle. This lockdown has been interminable, so let’s just get out and ride.

‘The south east isn’t all choked roads, housing estates and Amazon warehouses’