Canterbury North Downs Ride + Salisbury Plain and Shaftesbury

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. London

   London is the one place on the map where the best advice is to leave the bike at the edge. The centre around Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square is a maze of one-way streets, bus lanes, taxis and tourists, and parking is limited and expensive. The city also has a congestion charge and a low-emission zone, whose rules for motorcycles have changed over the years, so check the current conditions for your own machine before you ride in. For a start and finish, a quiet side street or a secure garage on the outskirts is a better plan.

   Read the complete London write-up.

2. 2. Canterbury

   On 29 December 1170, four knights who believed they were doing King Henry II's will murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in his own cathedral at Canterbury. The killing shocked Europe, Becket was made a saint within three years, and Canterbury became one of the great pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages, the destination of the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The cathedral, together with St Augustine's Abbey and the tiny St Martin's Church, forms a World Heritage Site, and it is still the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

   Read the complete Canterbury write-up.

3. 3. Westcott

4. 4. Salisbury

   Approach Salisbury from almost any direction and you will see the spire first, a slender stone needle rising above the water meadows, the tallest church spire in Britain at around 123 metres. The cathedral beneath it was built with remarkable speed in the thirteenth century, which gives it an unusual unity of style, and it stands in the middle of a vast, peaceful lawn, the Cathedral Close, surrounded by elegant old houses. John Constable painted it from the meadows, and the view he chose is still there.

   Read the complete Salisbury write-up.

5. 5. Shaftesbury

   Gold Hill is one of the most famous streets in England, and you have probably seen it without knowing its name: a steep, cobbled lane lined with old cottages, curving down from the top of the town, with the green fields of the Blackmore Vale spread out below. In 1973 it featured in a television advertisement for Hovis bread, directed by a young Ridley Scott, which became one of the best-loved adverts in British history. It is too steep and cobbled for bikes, so park in the town and walk down.

   Read the complete Shaftesbury write-up.

6. 6. Basingstoke

   Let us be honest about Basingstoke. It is a large, modern town on the M3, built up rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s as an overspill town for London, with a sprawl of housing estates, business parks and so many roundabouts that it is sometimes called Doughnut City. It is not a place anyone visits for its beauty. But it is very good at what riders need from it: fuel, food and a quick way back onto the road.

   Read the complete Basingstoke write-up.

7. 7. London

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete London write-up.