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Wheelers Cake Weekend
9-11 October 2009
You may see that Tower Hamlets Wheelers run a cycling weekend break a couple of times a year. Don't let that put you off. In truth it should be called the Wheelers Cake Weekend. For those of us on the shorter, slower rides it was a cake experience as much as a cycling one. There were morning coffee stops, elevenses, lunch (naturally we were peckish by then), followed by afternoon tea with scones and cream and then grand finale of the communal dinner as cooked by Sue. In fact Sue's dinner was the most wholesome thing I've eaten in a long while, but don't think we were deprived of our 5 a day the rest of the time oh no. I had /banana /cake, /fruit /cake, /carrot /cake, /strawberry /jam, and /apple /cider. The Government will soon be prescribing Wheelers Weekends on the National Health at this rate.
Oh and we did a bit of cycling.
Leigh
Whilst Leigh's report pretty much sums up the ethos of Wheelers rides, just for the record here is some of the boring stuff about where we actually cycled and when...
Friday
A fearless foursome (well actually Geoff, Mick Dave A and Caroline) enjoyed a ride from Woodbridge to Felixstowe Ferry (fish and chip lunch), then via Felixstowe town, a quick trip down to Landguard Fort to look at Harwich harbour and a selection of some very big ships (1), and onto Ipswich and finally Brantham. A very pleasant run, about 42 miles in total and a shame that no one else was able to join us.
By about 7pm most people had arrived from London and we then adjourned to the pub for dinner, except the unfortunate five who were unexpectedly "de-trained" at Colchester and found themselves with an unpredictable wait for the railway to be fixed, or an unplanned 15 mile ride to the bunkhouse. Showing typical Wheelers' grit, they chose the latter (but only after locating vital fuel supplies in the form of chips).
Saturday
The 14 riders in the long/medium ride teams set off together (and in fact stayed together pretty much all day as things turned out) and headed south to Manningtree to pick up daytripper Mike at the station. With no obvious refreshment stops, the merciless ride leader drove them onwards to St Osyth and the sea and then past the shallies/chalets of Jaywick and a selection of Martello towers to an early lunch at the Greensward café in Clacton - with sea views, good choice of food and an informative video all about the wind farm that was growing about 5 miles offshore. A gentle potter via genteel Frinton took us on to Walton-on-the-Naze pier (2). This engendered such a seaside spirit that about half the riders rolled up their trousers, took off their shoes and paddled. The ice creams promised by Dave A to those spending more than 5 minutes in the water never materialised (maybe he rumbled that it really wasn't that cold).
However a mere mile or so away there was tea and cakes at the Naze tower. Over these a plot was hatched to make the next leg (an easy run up a B road to Harwich with very few navigational difficulties and no real hills) a "fast as you like" frenzy. It was all looking quite sporting in the middle of the field until Cheryl spotted a roadside fruit stall, and Wheelers' own version of the hare and the tortoise was played out as the supposedly slower "medium" ride caught up.
On arrival at Harwich, her earlier joy at finding apples was completely eclipsed by the discovery that the Harwich Harbour foot ferry (runs April to Sept) was in fact operational in October - a one day special for the sea shanty festival. A swift phone call followed and 12 of us boarded the ferry to Shotley (our real speed kings had avoided the hare and tortoise game and were well on their way back to Manningtree by now). We used this ferry last time we were at Brantham and the guys who run it are friendly and very welcoming.
The weather had been getting better all day after a rather grey start, and so our final few miles of the day were a gorgeous ride back up the Shotley peninsula in the evening sunshine, only slightly buffeted by the headwind. We stopped off in the pub in Stutton, before the catering team returned to start doing interesting things with potatoes, melons and chickpeas (OK there were a few other ingredients too) under the expert direction of Sue.
Mileage for the day just under 60 miles, which everyone covered (so in the end no medium ride) - a pretty good achievement all round.
And what really happened to the Saturday short ride six? Well according to Leigh they just ate cake ... however inside sources suggest that, ably led by Steve, they did in fact cycle to East Bergholt, then to Pin Mill and Shotley before returning to Brantham and ending up one pub ahead of the long riders. About 37 miles amidst some classic Suffolk scenery.
Sunday
Everyone had to get at least as far as Marks Tey as trains to London were only starting there due to engineering works (exactly the same situation as we had faced on our previous visit in April 2008)
The long ride team were following an approximate "reverse Neville" route (see our 18 July 2009 ride report for the ride from Marks Tey to Manningtree) and started the day by heading out to East Bergholt and then on to Hadleigh for an early coffee stop. After passing through the picture postcard village of Kersey with its pretty watersplash (as in pretty steep descent to and pretty steep ascent from), we had a deflation. Three stayed behind, the others went on to Lavenham as there was important business to be done to locate the best lunch spot. By the time the re-inflated puncture party arrived, they had decided that the National Trust Guildhall was the place - a good choice, nice food, beautiful old building and the chance to make a contribution to a worthwhile cause whilst eating.
Our afternoon route took us on across country to Long Melford and then for the first time into Essex as we crossed the river Stour. A three mile stretch on a pleasant but slightly bumpy traffic free path led to Sudbury where one person decided that the opportunity to catch a train was appealing and so left the group. It was beginning to get a bit colder and the sky looked as if it might rain, but the rest of us carried on via Bures and Chappel Colne down to Marks Tey as per the original plan. We got on a train there and as we neared London noticed that the weather was getting nice and sunny again. This was not some regional variation as the "short" ride team, still in Essex, were by that time also enjoying the sun (and the cream teas at Tiptree Jam Factory).
Their route had taken them south via Manningtree to a morning coffee stop at the Beth Chatto gardens (cake), thence to Wivenhoe and the rather nice traffic free path up beside the Colne estuary to Colchester and its maze of cycle paths, and then back on country lanes to the pub at Birch Green (lunch). From there they continued to Tiptree of Jam Factory fame (more cake) and then the short but pleasant ride to Witham station (using the same route as in our July ride and a train home.
"Long" route about 44 miles (a bit less than I predicted as we found a shorter route to Hadleigh than the originally plan), "short" route about 38 miles (so err...not much difference really in the end).
Thank you everyone for making it an enjoyable weekend, and for joining in and helping out whether it was by peeling potatoes, stowing shopping, patching punctures, consuming cake or stopping snoring (OK the last one was wishful thinking!)
Caroline
Amazing facts (or things you really didn't need to know)
(1) - there are only three berths in the UK that can accommodate the largest ships in the world and two of them are at Felixstowe
(2) - Walton-on-the-Naze pier is the third longest in the UK (after Southend and Southport)
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