Sat 26 May
The Wheelers are of course a very special group but who knew that they could order the best weather so far of 2012 to be delivered along with the Ocado groceries?

Saturday morning at the Palace Farm Hostel in Doddington dawned with incredible blue skies and sunshine. The majority had either cycled all day Friday or arrived in time for supper at the local pub although two late stragglers – yours truly included – shuffled in from London at breakfast time on Saturday. Following feverish slatherings of sun cream, we were prepped to go! We divided into ‘short’, ‘medium’ and ‘long’ rides (supposedly referring to daily mileage covered although I was later educated that the terms of reference in fact are more about the distance between cake stops).. For the record, apparently, 10miles:1cake is the published and accepted ratio.

I joined the ‘long’ ride group – three gals and three guys. The route was skilfully navigated by Dave, who set a pace of 12.3mph average through winding country lanes and farmland, past fruit orchards and oast houses, various pretty villages (including one near Headcorn whose churchyard hosts Tom ‘Dr Who’ Baker’s headstone 1934 -  ), meadows full of sheep with thick woolly coats basking in the sunshine – prompting discussion regarding the various merits of merino wool for touring (see how everything can come round (he heh apologies) to cycling)? The following weekend would be the Queen’s Jubilee Coronation weekend and many village greens already had Union Jack bunting in place with anticipatory airs for hosting yards of picnic tables filled with finger sandwiches and Victoria sponge cakes.. Possibly the most genteel and elegant village was Tenterden, although our padded cycling shorts didn’t quite match the Laura Ashley floral dresses/handkerchief-blazer-combos so we cycled on - to Sissinghurst castle! Approximately 8 miles over the standard 10 miles, we stopped for coffee, high quality cake and icecreams.

Keeping up appearances, our next stop was lunch at Miss Mollett’s High Class Tea Room, complete with vintage tea cups and saucers and frilly seat cushions. Following lunch, for a number of miles, I cycled in blissful ignorance of the route, in a happy and slightly heady post-prandial state following only the back wheel in front of me as a result of which I cannot remember the locations of the many beautiful sights by which we passed. Fortunately a few ‘stealth hills’ (the ones where the road appears to lead downhill but somehow requires gear changing and indelicate ‘oofing’) livened up the relative lack of brain-on status, not to mention occasionally painful divebombing by giant kamikaze bugs. Ok, maybe not truly giant but Tower Hamlets does mean we’re from the city after all!

We encountered numerous other cyclists also enjoying the clement weather – and a special mention for one keenie on his mint choc chip green Bianchi bike complemented by his Bianchi mankini.

Camber Sands with long, long stretches of superfine pale sand gave us an opportunity for more ice cream and to chase the tide for a refreshing paddle in the sea before returning to Doddington via a short train ride to Lenham from Rye and a final short steep hill.

After gentle (ahem) rounding up, it was close to 60 miles and 7pm-ish before we reached the hostel (last group back) where Alicia and a team of helpers had performed culinary magic and prepared a delicious WWA feast: Indian-style starters followed by chicken and chickpea curries, spinach with thyme, served with rice and naan bread. So tasty that there were many return visits for seconds and indeed thirds before fragrant coconut and cardamom rice pudding with pomegranate seeds. Our tummies were utterly spoiled, many thanks to the cooks – and those who helped to clear up! A great atmosphere exchanging slightly sunburned post-ride stories over dinner with the best bike of the weekend award going to the owner of a fabulous all-pink bicycle! Ding ding!

Sun 27 May
Woken by the Palace Farm cockerels, Sunday’s weather again was beautiful. Most of us savoured the rare opportunity to breakfast outdoors and enjoyed leftover rice pudding with fresh fruit salad as a worthy update to the cyclists’ stalwart of porridge. Some tidying up and last minute group photos before thank yous/goodbyes to the hostel owners before setting off again.

The long riders – nine of us this time – were led by the ‘A’-team: Caroline, Roy and Dave. We rode to Whitstable for an early lunch: oysters at the Wheelers Oyster Café, crab sandwiches on the seafront and even just enough time to buy a hat at the RNLI shop! Two people decided to linger for a paddle, leaving the remaining seven riders to ride on to the historic city of Canterbury, where another two riders peeled off. Cycle route 18 became the gorgeous star of the day: taking us for miles through meadowland along the river Stour, gentle uphill followed by very fun longish downhill stretches, avenues of trees.. Another icecream (including Bianchi flavour) stop in another attractive village then onto Ashford where we concluded that we were enjoying ourselves so much that we would carry on a bit further. Later on, at moderate flagging stage, Roy magically summoned up a pub – The Bell – for our final and very welcome pitstop. The Bell was clearly a high quality establishment – graced not only by our excellent 2 wheeled vehicles but also a pristine Birds Eye custard yellow VW campervan and various luxury cars including an Aston Martin with a portly owner and a licence plate reading P1IOCK. Hm. Maybe just a small internal smile at that one?

From The Bell to Staplehurst – lovely and relatively uneventful except a last minute puncture salvaged by some air and quick cycling to Staplehurst station, where the kindly train conductor turned a blind eye to our bicycles and where we encountered a few CTC riders also returning to London. 

This was my second ever Wheelers’ Weekend Away and this was my first ride report. A truly fantastic weekend. Many thanks to Rob Lister who organised the weekend and the brilliant ride leaders. Over and out.

Mary

And an assortment of pictures from Geoff and Alix