On Saturday 21st June, a group of hardy cyclists took to the road for Blue Marine Foundation’s Solent Wave, a 130km route from London’s iconic Somerset House to the sunny skies of Chichester Marina. The event also featured a walking option, taking in the surroundings of the unique Solent landscape in and around the marina. Of course, we were there with much needed coffee at every step of the journey, serving excellent espressos, essential iced lattes and positive affirmations to the participants.
Climpson & Sons has partnered with Blue Marine Foundation as a coffee sponsor on their adventurous annual fundraisers, making coffee for their events in the UK and across continental Europe since 2017. These trips are a showcase for the brilliant work Blue Marine Foundation does to support ocean conservation worldwide and is just one part of their busy calendar of projects, events and fundraisers through the year.
Find out more about the Blue Marine Foundation impact here.
Why Solent?
The Solent waterway is a complex network of harbours, islands, estuaries and sandbanks that is home to an astounding array of wildlife and habitats, such as seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and globally significant seabird nesting sites. But important habitats across the area are being lost, and the biodiversity they support is in decline. The vision is to transform the region from a degraded state to a naturally expanding, connected and productive ecosystem.
You can find out more about the Solent Seascape Project here. The project regularly takes on volunteers for seagrass picking, surveys and oyster cleaning. After finding out more about their projects, we’re looking forward to joining them for a volunteer day later this year.
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Here’s how the Solent Wave looked for us:
The Bike Team
Leaving the house before sunrise on the longest day of the year is certainly an achievement. Darryl, Max, Jo and Ari set their alarms for the crack of dawn in order to set up our trusty Conti CC100 espresso machine on the banks of the Thames at Somerset House.
Although the set up looks simple, there’s a huge amount of kit that’s involved in a mobile coffee bar. From jerry cans of filtered water to our supply of ceramic cups . Everything is loaded in at top speed in order to start serving coffee for the first cyclist's arrival at 7.30am.
After catching up with the returning faces (many of the cyclists take part in these events every year) it’s time to send the riders on their way, speedily do the washing up and then bundle everything back into the van to get ahead of them to set up for the mid-way coffee stop. Kudos to Darryl for his skillful and safe driving, always.
Rinse and repeat. Team Climpsons arrives at the rest stop just in time to pour espressos for the first of the riders. The event attracts a mixed group of cyclists and caters to groups of many different speeds so we settle in to welcome each and every cyclist to the stop. Today, we’re serving the Broadway Blend, our much loved 50/50 blend beloved by our Broadway Market locals. Of course we brought our Decaf La Plata from Colombia too.
Back on the road and it’s another race to the finish line at the marina where we catch up with …
The Walking Team
Lucy and Becky hop on the offensively early 6am train from London Victoria to Chichester to set up for the walking side of the event. The Climpsons gazebo provides an essential sunshade as we roll out our mobile coffee bar and second Conti CC100 at the marina. We’re joined by the Blue Marine Foundation team and volunteers from the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust who are on hand to spread their local knowledge about the Solent.
The walkers gather for a coffee briefing from Hamish of Blue Marine Foundation, before setting off for the 6 hour stroll around the region.
We met up with the group at picturesque Del Quay. With scorching temperatures nearing 30 degrees, iced coffees were the order of the day. Luckily, we brought a 3L bag-in-box of Midnight Oil Coffee Concentrate to serve iced lattes and americanos in an instant.
Midnight Oil Espresso Martini at the finish line
A successful day as both walkers and cyclists cross the finish line to be greeted by a hearty BBQ and our Midnight Oil Espresso Martini bar. It’s become a staple of the event and well deserved after a long day on the move.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the event. We love supporting the important work of Blue Marine Foundation and can’t wait to get involved in 2026.
