Why this ride
Out of Dunstable, one way: 468 km, roughly 6 h 46 in the saddle. The stops in between: Edgware, in Leysdown-on-Sea, Scenic stretch near Maidstone and Peacehaven. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Peak District Overnight Escape · short arc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 468 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 46
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Fuel stop near Dunstable
Dunstable sits where Watling Street, the old Roman road from London to the north-west, cuts through the chalk of the Chiltern Hills, and the town has been a stopping place for travellers for nearly two thousand years. Henry the First founded a priory here in the twelfth century, and its great church still stands, though much reduced. Today the town is busy and practical, with plenty of service stations and supermarkets.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Dunstable write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Peak District Overnight Escape is where the day begins. Next is Peak District Overnight Escape checkpoint 8.
2. Near Edgware
Most people know Edgware as the end of a Tube line, but riders know it for something older. The A5 that runs through it is Watling Street, the Roman road that ran from the Kent coast to the far side of Britain, and the long dead-straight run from here towards St Albans has the unmistakable stamp of legionary surveyors. The finish lies a little south, around Kingsbury and Queensbury, where north-west London becomes an endless spread of semis, shopping parades and busy junctions.
Read the complete Near Edgware write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Finish at Peak District Overnight Escape checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea.
3. Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea
Leysdown-on-Sea, at the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey, has the faded cheerfulness of a traditional English seaside resort: caravan parks, amusement arcades, chip shops and a long shingle beach looking out over the Thames estuary towards the open sea. It is not glamorous, but it has a certain charm, and the sense of being at the edge of things is strong.
Read the complete Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 177 km into the recorded legs you reach Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea. Next is Scenic stretch near Maidstone.
4. Scenic stretch near Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, built on the banks of the River Medway, which carried ragstone, timber and hops to London for centuries. The town has a busy modern centre, but its riverside has old buildings, including the medieval Archbishop's Palace, a stopping place for archbishops of Canterbury travelling between London and their cathedral. It is a practical place, with good roads, shops and services, and a gateway to some of the loveliest countryside in the south-east.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Maidstone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Scenic stretch near Maidstone, about halfway. Next is London motorcycle escapes return.
5. Peacehaven
Peacehaven was a field of cabbages until the First World War. Then an entrepreneur named Charles Neville bought the clifftop, laid out a grid of roads and started selling plots, at first under the name New Anzac-on-Sea, after the Australian and New Zealand troops camped nearby. The name changed after Gallipoli, and the result is one of England's odder towns: a sprawling bungalow suburb perched on top of chalk cliffs between Brighton and Newhaven.
Read the complete Peacehaven write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
London motorcycle escapes return sits at 388 km, late in the day. Next is Food stop in Overton.
6. Food stop in Overton
The paper for Bank of England banknotes was made near Overton for centuries. The Portal family founded a mill on the River Test in the early eighteenth century, and their watermarked paper became the currency of the empire; the business, later part of De La Rue, still operates here. It is a curious claim to fame for a quiet Hampshire village of brick and flint houses, but it says much about the clear, fast chalk streams of this part of England.
Read the complete Food stop in Overton write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 485 km.
Leg by leg
Fuel stop near Dunstable to Near Edgware
Fuel stop near Dunstable → Near Edgware is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea to Scenic stretch near Maidstone
Photo stop in Leysdown-on-Sea → Scenic stretch near Maidstone is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Maidstone to Peacehaven
Scenic stretch near Maidstone → Peacehaven is 80 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.