The Famous Five (ride again).
Leaving early seemed like a good idea until the alarm went off. With the rest of the world not yet awake we set off from Tiptree to meet up with Sarah at Copford, we passed “Barnplants” (can’t believe it). After Wormingford the view across the Colne Valley was stunning with mist just starting to clear. After “Lamarsh Hill” the views just got even better, we rode onto Sudbury, where we had persuaded Gills sister to provide bacon butties and very large slices of homemade Victoria Sandwich, Alan even had to sample the Lemon Drizzle cake as well, all very nice it was a great pity to leave and we left much later than intended. As we arrived at Great Yeldham we stopped for Wendy to change maps something she always carries on the back of the tandem, and as she folds and unfolds it looks like she is reading a copy of the “Times”, at this point we spotted a very sweaty group of cyclists approaching very fast which turned out to be the main group lead by Simon, after a few words they left us in their dust and vanished in the distance. We carried on towards Saffron Walden but before we got that far with the weather and views being so good we decided to head to Finchingfield, which looked stunning as usual and full of bikes (motorbikes), being outnumbered we moved onto Great Bardfield and inspected “The Cage” their local lock up (not a pub) which was open.The next stop was Thaxted and an excellent tea room for lunch (Poppies), after this Alan wanted to take us down a small road by the Chelmer (another of his most favourite roads in the world) again outstanding scenery, but it did mean we had to backtrack to arrive back on the route which we followed through to Takeley where we weakened and sat on seats at the crossroads eating ice creams, again we were back on the route, but then we cut back through Felsted to Little Dunmow, joining “The Flitch Way” as panic had set in as we did not know whether Rayne station cafe closed at 4.00 or 5.00 on Sunday, we arrived in good time for afternoon tea, having covered quite a few miles. We came back through Great Leighs, Black Notley, Cressing, to Kelvedon and the back road to Tiptree just to add the extra mile or two, we went back down windmill hill to Inworth, Messing and home!!! We then sat in Alan and Wendy’s wildflower garden savouring the views as the sun started to go down drinking homemade elder flower cordial and eating more food (we can’t understand with all the exercise why we have not lost weight). We were cycling for just over 8.5 hours average 12mph but the journey with stops took 12 hours it was just one of those days when the monkjack that stood at a junction watching us approach for a long time (we were going uphill) and the buzzard that sat on a post at the side of the road keeping an eye on us as we went past, this was Essex at it’s very best, it was so nice to be on the bike that we did not want it to end, we would like to thank Simon for coming up with the idea and organising the weather (does he have a friend somewhere?) and Simon, Alan and Wendy for finding some of the most Trike unfriendly lanes in the county (our chain jumped off three times).
Les & Gill