Bike Route: Dorchester to Lyme Regis 33mi 2300ft of climb
Accommodation: Townhouse Middle Room (Airbnb); host Chris. Private room with queen bed on first floor, shared bath across hall, use of kitchen, dining room, garden, and deck; washer in kitchen; wifi.
Dinner: Harbor Inn. We each ordered a platter with a variety of local seafood, plus a salad and rolls. Very good.
We could hardly believe the weather when we got up. England continued to enjoy an unusual heatwave, and we were happy to start out in sunshine. We began by climbing straight up to the Hardy Monument, built in 1844 to honor Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy. The views from the site were stupendous.
We thought we were home free on our way down the other side, with such a beautiful day and a fairly easy ride. Then we hit the Road Closed sign and barricade. I moved a traffic cone so we could approach a worker in a truck nearby. He wasn't happy about that. His job was to keep traffic out of the area, and we were on CCTV, and I could be fined 1000 pounds for moving that cone. We asked about alternative routes. He was not from the area, and the only option he knew of was to go back over the hill (the Admiral Hardy hill) and around on the highway--more than 20 miles out of our way on a road that doesn't allow bikes.
We thanked him, cycled back about half a mile, and started walking through paddocks on the public footpath. It took a while, but we finally made it all the way around the closed portion of the road and back onto our bike route.
We were okay for a while, until we hit a flooded road and had to walk our bikes through the water about a quarter mile.
Despite it all, we made it to Lyme Regis, where our host met us, made us a cup of tea, and encouraged us to settle in to a large and comfortable room. He recommended a great seafood restaurant for supper. We were happy.
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| The Hardy Monument. |
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| We biked up through Dorset countryside to reach the monument. |
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| Meghan pointed out that there were no pictures of me in our first set of blog posts, so I took a selfie at the Hardy Monument. |
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| After hiking our bikes through grassy farm fields around a closed road, we made it back to our bike route--which included a stretch on a gravel road through farm fields. |
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| Such a beautiful day. |
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| Hiking the bike through a flooded road. At least this one wasn't closed. |
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| Lyme Regis was our first town on the coast. We were ready for seafood! |
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| The sailboats looked like they might be a club or school team. A safety boat accompanied them and followed them back into their moorings. They reminded us of our grandson's high school team. |
