Auntie Helen’s view of the Hilly South London ride
Why does anyone ever drive in London? It’s horrendous! Certainly it seemed odd that I was voyaging forth from the countryside of North East Essex to the Big Smoke… to go cycling!
I left home at 8:15am to meet everyone at 11am at Brockley Park. No problem, thought I, especially when I arrived in the Catford area (just 4 miles to go) by 10am. However I had found a rather impressive traffic jam and being a bit rubbish about London geography had no idea of any alternative routes. So I sat in the jam, doing about 1 mile every 20 minutes, talking myself out of dumping the car and cycling to the park (I probably wouldn’t have found the way).
A mile away from my parking zone in Dulwich, especially selected by djtheglove, my car decided to give me a big red warning light of a thermometer and I saw that my engine temp was very high. I wound down the window – yes, the bonnet smelled. I couldn’t think of what to do about it so carried on sitting in the traffic jam, hoping it would clear soon, hoping the car wouldn’t erupt in geysers of steam, preparing to leg it out of the door if the engine caught fire.
Fortunately I eventually got past the roadworks without explosion or waterspout and found my way to dj’s recommended parking zone, a side road with rather crumbly edges. I got the bike out of the car, started to fix the seat back on and dj appeared as my escort to the rest of the group in Brockley Park. So off we went.
Fortunately I wasn’t the last to arrive as Davywalnuts had had to stop for a puncture. We found our way to the public loos (much needed after a three-and-a-quarter hour journey) and then posed for the obligatory self-timed photograph. Sorry that the park bench cuts some of our feet up. People are as follows:
Emab, User1314, User3143, Delzeqq, Radius, djtheglove, Tdr1nka, Davywalnuts and Auntie Helen.
We set off and soon arrived at the Herne Hill Velodrome, not quite what I was expecting but a very interesting place. There was a smallish group of kids going round on it and we watched a young boy trundling around the top of the banking. Djtheglove put his organiser hat on, chatted up the guy leading the kids’ group, and got permission for us to go on the velodrome. Well, not all of us, the guy didn’t like the idea of a trike on there, but the rest were allowed to have a go.
Conclusion was, it’s very weird!
Anyway, after another loo stop at the Velodrome and some biscuits brought along by Yours Truly we set off. It was now half past twelve and we’d managed about two miles in total so things were going well!
We settled in for the hilly ride towards the Partridge at Bromley. Might I just say at this point that a recumbent rider gets a rather low-down view of any cyclists she is following, so I offer a few photographs of male backsides in lycra for you here and you can see if you can identify them from this view.
The hills had loomed large in my mind as scary things that went on forever. The reality was they were OK, manageable, even if the rest of the group got a quick breather at the top whilst they waited for me (except for Tdr1nka who kindly bore me company all the way up). I tried to take some pics of the hills but you can’t really see how steep they are from the photos.
The Partridge Pub at Bromley, a converted Bank, was a good place to stop and have a cuppa and also some more biscuits. We took over their little outside garden area, filling it with bikes and people in lycra. It was also at this point that we had the Silly Hat Competition, to see if anyone can carry it off. My conclusion is that both Davywalnuts and Emab can.
Radius also demonstrated the variety of things you can do with a Buff.
After our stop we wended our way back towards Clapham Common through Beckenham (I think!), including more hills, and a fab downhill. Downhills seemed to become races rather frequently (perhaps the uphills were races too but I could never tell from the back!).
On one hill (which was pretty steep) the road was slightly damp so I didn’t have enough traction and was spinning my back wheel. djtheglove gallantly came to the rescue, pushing me up the hill whilst running (he must be mad!) Also got a push from Tdr1nka on another occasion. Helpful chaps!
There was a fair amount of the journey on the flat, though, which suited me more.
We arrived at Clapham Common in some light drizzle but a few drinks sorted that out. The obligatory group shots followed:
Anyway it was a great day’s riding, although hilly in places it was good exercise and good company. Many thanks to djtheglove for organising it!
I got home at about 8pm after another slow drive out of London. Still it was worth it for the exercise and company. Roll on the next ride, 7th March in Hertfordshire!
, and I've got the offcuts to prove it 
