Their story, in their words…
Our Mark Evison journey started in Dartford and the first day was very rough! We were caught in the pouring rain causing all four of us to become soaked as well as lots of our bags and equipment. We followed a very hilly route which very challenging to cycle with the heavy luggage we were carrying as well as cycling uphill on our bikes. Constantly being wet and rained on also made this day much more difficult!!
After various stops under any form of shelter we could find throughout the first rainy day, we eventually made it to the house of our first host in Sevenoaks. Our host Andrew was very accommodating and showed us around his beautiful home where we had 3 rooms between the 4 of us and were invited to use his kitchen to cook a spicy tomato pasta dish.
Our second day began very early as we had a long cycle ahead of us from Sevenoaks to the Dover Port. This cycle was beautiful as we rode through the fields near the coast of Dover in the sunshine since the weather had brightened up overnight!! We encountered a few lovely people on our way who were also walking through the fields in Dover and were interested in travelling to Dover beach. We had lots of protein bars, nuts and fruits remaining from our initial packing after we had protein shakes and bars for breakfast!
After arriving in Dover after a wonderful cycle with amazing views, we travelled on the ferry and arrived in Calais at around 9pm where we then cycled to a local youth hostel to spend our first night in France. As a team, we deduced that the second day was the most enjoyable due to the much sunnier weather compared to the first day and the beautiful views.
Our third day included cycling along the beach and coast in Calais which proved to be harder than we had imagined! The wind was very harsh and cold as we cycled throughout the day. We stopped in a few local shops to practice our French speaking skills and buy some more fibrous snacks including nuts, oat cookies and fresh fruit. We ended the third day by watching the beautiful sunset on the beach with some chocolate bars before cycling back to our hostel for the last night.
On our fourth and final day of this adventure, we cycled back to the Port De Calais where we boarded our ferry around midday and were greeted by our parents in Dover who rewarded us with a comfortable car ride home.
