So.... Auntie Helen's report for the ride.
Gary arrived at my house at 9:10 and we set off via the country route to Manningtree. As we arrived we saw User10571 and ChrisKH were there and sat ourselves down with the Half Breakfast as various other people turned up on trains or in cars.
All the 'possibles' confirmed they were coming, plus bleakanddivine and Trevor from Hertford turned up unexpectedly, so there were 22 of us in total at Tiptree.
Those who had chosen to cycle up from Londinium arrived 5 minutes late (shocker!) having been seen on the A12 by Mow as he drove to Manningtree. We knew, therefore, they were on the way, but hadn't expected them to pick a colossally busy dual carriageway to get here.
There was lots of milling around and generally faffing as people arrived and then finally, at about half past eleven, we were ready for the off!
The ride took us through Lawford to Manningtree and then Mistley (past the Edme maltings). We then moved inland to Bradfield Heath and then Wix. At Wix we had a not-obvious turning to take to get onto the NCN51 and the fast ones in front didn't have a satnav; fortunately Arallsopp zoomed off to find them and guided them back onto the correct route.
As we cycled through Elmstead Market we met James (my husband) on his trike and he filtered in. This caused some confusion to a few people who didn't know he was coming and weren't sure where the extra trike had come from.
The first puncture occurred on the not-very-nice A133 Clacton Road into Colchester. After a short break we continued on, working our way across the complicated Magic Roundabout and then going up Hythe Hill (although Stevevw insisted it wasn't much of a hill). Then a brief bit of busy dual carriageway and we were off on our way out of Colchester.
A bit of disorganisation in terms of leaders not having satnavs and not very good marking of junctions meant that several people sailed past an unexpected turning but we were soon all back together and pootling down the Layer road to Layer-de-la-Haye, past the unusually-named 'Donkey & Buskin' pub (apparently a Buskin is a kind of knee-high boot). From Layer we headed towards Birch and joined the NCN1 through Layer Marney, Layer Breton towards Tiptree. We had some good ascents/descents here.
Tiptree finally appeared and we made our way to the jam factory, lunch very much appreciated. We managed to all sit outside and have a good leisurely lunch (even if someone decided to drop her lunch in her lap!). Some of us also had a cream tea as well!
At Tiptree Dellzeqq had to zoom off so our star Back Marker wasn't available for the return leg although Topcat1 ably took on the mantel of chief Back Marker. There was a brief pause almost immediately after setting off from Tiptree when Sig Silverprinter discovered her cycle computer wasn't working - rather a disaster as she was aiming to do her Century today. Eventually she got it working and worked out that it had failed to log three miles only.
From Tiptree we went to Tolleshunt Knights, then the Wigboroughs, Peldon, Abberton and then we were on the main Mersea road towards Colchester. At this point Wowbagger and Mrs Wow (on the tandem) peeled off to go and visit their son in Wivenhoe via the Rowhedge ferry (let's hope it was on duty today!). So we were now down to 19 souls pedalling their way towards Colchester.
The journey back seemed much quicker, despite another puncture repair stop at Greenstead. Arallsopp also used this time to do a quick repair to his recumbent bike, but more repairs were needed when we got to Manningtree.
Crockleford Hill (which I hate!) caused the group to split into two sections. I held up a small group at the back with my slow hill climbing and we didn't catch the others until we returned to the station. We went through Great Bromley (my part of the world) and past Little Bromley church, arriving at Lawford and then the fantastic descent down Cox's Hill. What goes down must come up, however!
At the station lots of people had a quick beer whilst we stood around and watched Arallsopp and Aperitif doing some running repairs on Arallsopp's idler.
James had gifted me with some pliers which proved rather handy for the repairs, but eventually the job was bodged well enough for the journey home.
Various people had made their way home by train/car at this point and it was just the hardy (or local) souls, left. James and I and Gary were making our way back towards Colchester, as was Stevevw whose wife was visiting friends there. Arallsopp and ilovebikes were heading back to Bromley, Aperitif and Topcat1 to west London, and ChrisKH and Sig Silverprinter were heading for Romford and her maiden century. James and I were instantly dropped on Cox's Hill (a 10% ascent for about half a mile) and didn't see the others again. Gary appeared on our doorstep after about half an hour to say they'd gone down the A120 (I can't think of a single good reason for doing that!) and no doubt it would spit them out onto the A12. Lovely. Not.
Anyway, we had a great ride, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to everyone. Thanks for all your company!
