Hi Simon,
Well we turned up at the library just before 9.30, and as 9.30 passed we made plans for the rest of the day (all seemed to be sitting with our feet up in front of the fire) then just as we were about to leave Pat & Paul arrived then from the other direction Sarah.
At this point we made our second mistake of the day the first being to believe the weather forecast that said the wind was going to drop after 10.00am we made our minds up to head off with the wind behind us making for Barnplants with the idea that if the weather held we would carry onto Fillpots at Boxted the weather was fine and the wind took us along with ease so we decided to carry on, the wind even took the sting out of the hill going up to West Bergholt.
The wind was on our backs the sun shone on the water all around, it could have been in Lynnne’s video in fact the surf looked superb in the fields either side. The food as normal at Fillpots was very good, unfortunately only two (greedy people initials L & G) had the cooked breakfast, but Sarah did manage to get an unusual large piece of cake, we sat chatting for some time waiting for the wind to drop which was never going to happen eventually we had to leave choosing a route back to Little Horksley, this meant not going directly into the wind, after crossing the Nayland road the surf was up we ploughed through the first two lakes, the third proving to be deeper and we said the cyclist prayer of please let it be the others that find the pothole and not us!
We all made it through to Little Horksley, the sight of Pat & Paul going along at 45 degrees to the road when they passed an opening in the hedge seemed funny until it was our turn, somewhere between Wormingford and Fordham Sarah got caught out a did a little off roading ( in the gutter), but as Paul said at least the bike was O.K. We carried onto Fordham where Sarah complained about having no wind in her front tyre ( strange as there was so much about) A hole was located without having to remove the wheel, a few inches of tube eased out, patched, pumped up all ready to go, only to find it had gone down again, on further inspection another hole was found and then another big cut all with (wind) coming out. This was approached with gay abandon and throwing caution to the wind (which was not difficult) Sarah opened her bag (we think its a Tardis) only to be bettered by Hermione from Harry Potter with her handbag, in the depths a new Tyre and various tubes, which were fitted in double quick time by Les and Paul. Sarah said that the new tyre had done over 2000 miles, when we queried how new it looked she replied it’s been in my bag on the back of the bike!
We came back passed Mill Race with the option of a diversion to Barnplants or the Diner at Marks Tey should the weather turn bad, but we had blue skies all the way home, and only a few spots of rain as we entered Tiptree.
Total 36 miles.
Les & Gill