We did it. It took various amounts of time for all to return from the day out adventure around Chelmsford town, no trains were required.
A good turn-out set off from the Ice Rink in bright sunshine at 9.30am and made steady progress through Toot Hill, Moreton, Leaden Roding before making a cultural stop at the historic village of Pleshey. After a moment of reflecting on English medieval history It was here that CCH's chair, Trevor Parsons appeared by magic seated on a chair like Bike-e cycle.
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleshey_Castle
From here we continued on in warm weather to Little Waltham and around to Terling where clouds darkened and the temperature dropped. By the time we reached the road to Little Badow it was throwing down wet stuff powered by blustery winds - not the best conditions to face the climb of North Hill in. Why did I leave my rain jacket on my bed this morning i pondered as cold trickles ran down the inside of my shirt. It became a matter of urgency to get to the Cafe at Danbury and into the warmth. North Hill was flowing with water and we were all glad to get inside, unfortunately there was not enough room for us so four of the group sat at the tables out side. It was OK because April broke out with more sunshine to warm our backs. We were greeted here by Elli from Essex County Council who is keen to encourage London's cyclists to visit Essex. We had a fine break before heading out, neck scarfs in place for the return leg of the journey. From here it was pretty much a case of two groups behaving like hares and tortoises joining and re catching each other all the way back.
Trevor and Michael got detached from our herdsman Stuart to make up a flagging pair looking for directions - I called Trev during one of our puncture stops to check if they were ok...they were ok!
Well done to all who made the trip especially those who are not so practiced at long rides.
There will be other organised rides in the summer but until then the club runs will continue from the Lea Valley Ice Centre on Sundays meeting at 10am.
Cheers
Keir
No comments:
Post a Comment