C&M Easter Tour 2025 - the ride home

The happy band of pilgrims gathered for one last breakfast on Monday morning, broke bread and made toast, and people started making their way home.  Some by car, some by train and some by bicycle.  Keith rode (nearly) all the way home in a single day.  Seven of us hit the road towards Tonbridge as part of a two-day ride home.   The first day was a ride of three halves.

Running legends

... and some others
(we had photo fatigue by this stage of the weekend)

We rode across the Kent Downs to Charing for elevenses, hard riding as the start of the ride was littered with hills, so by the time we arrived it was twelveses.  With some difficulty we found a sports pavilion bar for refreshment.  After that we had a very long ride along the top of a ridge towards lunch, slightly downhill, so we sped along and arrived for a most enjoyable outdoor lunch at the Cock Inn, Boughton Monchelsea, at a respectable time.  After that we wiggled around in the valley of the baby river Medway, easy cycling in the sunshine, passing people sitting outside in pub gardens, until we arrived at Tonbridge and the Premier Inn.

Tuesday was even warmer as we rode through the High Weald of Kent, passing the 14th century manor house Penshurst Place and then the pretty village of Penshurst.  At Cowden, we paused to admire the CTC sign at the Fountain Inn, a watering hole favoured by the Midweek Wayfarers on lengthy rides led by Jeff Tollerman and Brian Greenwood.  After a long and lovely ride, we eventually descended off the Weald to Dormansland, where we were disturbed by the sight of two cars at the same time.  So much traffic!

Nice shot of the car park!

The level of traffic gradually increased to normal Surrey levels by the time we reached Lingfield for 11s, and then we made our way on more familiar lanes to Horley and on to Leigh for our last lunch of the tour, and finally to Pixham, where we all went our separate ways.  My thanks to the riders on both outward and return journeys for excellent company and your good-natured response to various hiccups.  The unexpectedly good weather also helped make for very enjoyable rides.

At Leigh

ride to Canterbury · Pete's Saturday ride · Helen's Saturday ride · Sunday ride · ride home

C&M Easter Tour 2025 - Sunday ride to Deal

Lured by the promise of a flat ride

Today, Pete B led a surprising, unconventional ride, which he described as a flat ride to Deal.  23 of us joined him.  It was a beautiful route, but also educational.  We came to realise, through our experiences on the ride, that there are many different types of flat roads.

Some of the flat roads carefully curated by Pete had the strange sensation of drag, of being almost held back by an invisible force.  It was tiring to ride along these flat roads.  We knew they were flat, because Pete had told us so himself. 

Other flat roads almost willed you along with little or no effort; in some extreme cases people had the sensation of speeding up without pedalling - for a few this was so disconcerting they felt compelled to put the brakes on, despite being on a completely flat road.   Such a strange sensation, which seemed to defy rational explanation.

Our destination was the east coast town of Deal, the inspiration behind many marketing and political campaigns, tables, and card games.   

Instead of going directly east, Pete's route curved to the south to find a lot of these special flat roads.  We rattled through places like Ratling, but by Frogham, some people were feeling a bit croaky.  Coffee was needed, so Pete stopped to look at the map.  Deal was a good deal further on, but amazingly, there was a heritage railway nearby; Eythorne station on the East Kent Railway had a cafe, situated in HRH Queen Elizabeth's rail car, used to transport her in style to & from Sandringham.  We watched the Easter Bunny Special (train) depart, enjoyed coffee & cake, and viewed the exhibits, including a carriage specially built to transport elephants.  Those were the days!  The coaches were used to take elephants to the seaside, since elephants in the wild and captivity enjoy swimming.  The coaches had to have large, specially designed pouches to store their trunks.

11s stop

Aboard the Queen's royal cafe train

 

One for the railway enthusiasts

Elephant carriage

On to Deal, which has an impressive castle, called Deal Castle, the seaside, and a good choice of eating places.  After lunch we rode north along a rather sketchy coastal cycle path, and then inland to Sandwich, famously the place where the Earl of Sandwich invented (and named) the Sandwich.   They're pretty hot on naming stuff round there.

Deal Castle

The sun has got his windproof on - at Deal

Now we had a tail wind and we were on the Thanet Levels, an area of low-lying marshland between the so-called Isle of Thanet and the rest of Kent.  These flat roads were of the traditional sort, and we were flying along heading back to Canterbury.  Amazingly there was virtually no traffic.  Roads on the levels zig-zagged around the fields in right angles, and it was awesome to see twenty plus riders in different shades of high vis, streaming across the landscape.

 

A bit later on, we bumped into Simon & Jen coming the other way to meet us.  Luckily no-one was hurt this time, and we rode back to the hotel together.  It was an excellent and fun day out, a big group held together by a lot of corner marking, great leading by Pete and back marking by Diane.

(Video from Jen)

Simon and Jen's off-road ride

Later that evening I was invidiously picked upon by some of the others, for no good reason other than it was my birthday, and unfairly made to do a speech.  It was a good opportunity to thank Helen and Pete for leading lovely rides, and Lilian for taking over the organisation of the Easter Tour and putting on such an enjoyable event.

Thank you!

ride to Canterbury · Pete's Saturday ride · Helen's Saturday ride · Sunday ride · ride home

Cheam & Morden Easter Tour 2025 - Saturday ride to Folkestone

This year we had the luxury of two alternative rides on Saturday,  offered by Helen and Pete B respectively, with roughly equal attendance.   There is a separate report for Helen's ride.

 

Outside the hotel

Pete's ride went south.  We left the hotel, did a bit of a twiddle and were immediately on a country cycle path through fields.  It was remarkably flat - at first - for a Pete ride, as we continued down the valley of Pert Bottom and Lynsore Bottom, cheekily known as The Bottoms.   Then the hills started, as we climbed over to the next valley, to coffee at a vineyard.

Interesting pub names

Interesting duck ears (at Pert Bottom),
where Ian Fleming wrote You Only Live Twice

Interesting riders at the vineyard 11s

Next - more hills, ever southwards, until we reached a high escarpment with a view over the Eurotunnel station at Folkestone, laid out like a model railway below us.

Over the hill

You can just make out the Eurotunnel station below

We descended towards our lunch stop, but unfortunately one of our group came off the bike, so plans were changed as we did some running repairs to bike and rider.  Instead we ate at a miniature railway cafe in Peene, before a sub-group set off to get the train home to Canterbury.  Pete devised a short cut, which turned out to be very beautiful, taking us on a long climb up to a ridge.  We rejoined our route riding north along the top of the ridge, almost to Canterbury.  An impromptu tea stop happened at a viewpoint, where Andy produced a pack of chocolate hot cross buns to share.

Some of the lunch crew at Peene

Many thanks to Pete for a scenic and enjoyable ride, conducted with inimitable style, and to all those who took photos.

ride to Canterbury · Pete's Saturday ride · Helen's Saturday ride · Sunday ride · ride home

Cheam & Morden Easter Tour 2025 - the pre-ride

The C&M Easter Tour is an annual trip with three nights and two days of riding based somewhere away from London, with some people taking extra days to ride to & from the tour.   This year the venue was Canterbury.  The pre-ride to Canterbury proved very popular, with 14 people (ten ladies!) riding.  Jennie remarked "It's going to be a very chatty ride", and so it proved with lots of banter and fun.  The weather forecast had been dubious but in the event we had good weather for the whole weekend.

11s at Greenwich; still smiling

We split the ride over two days with an extra night in Rochester, and decided to ride out of London along the Thames Estuary.  Sunshine and clear blue skies arrived at just the right time and London's Docklands looked beautiful in their industrial way.  Everyone was in high spirits as we followed a Tony Hooker route from Greenwich to Erith, after which things went a bit downhill.   There's a seemingly unavoidable busy road from Erith to Dartford,  where the best option is a roadside cycle path.  Dartford was jammed solid with traffic, and when we turned off onto the quiet lane to Darenth, it too was queuing along its length, in the opposite direction to us.  We surmised that there was a problem on the M25 and this was overflow, but it could just have been bank holiday traffic.

Another 'quiet' lane, another jam; this time an articulated lorry in a too-narrow lane had created a logjam of cars and vans trying to come the other way.  We could get past on our bikes, but the cars were stuck there for the rest of the day, we reckoned.  We even felt slightly sorry for them.  Eventually we made it to quiet Gravesend and a late lunch stop; outdoors, while a police helicopter buzzed angrily overhead. 

Lunch in Gravesend

Finally we were actually on quiet roads, along an old canal, past the military equivalent of Diggerland, and then, with Rochester almost in sight, we came across a pub at Upper Upnor, a tiny charming village on the Medway.   To cap it all, our Premier Inn could not take card payments, so we had to make alternative arrangements for eating.  Wallace would have said "Eh Gromit, that didn't go too badly", meaning that an enjoyable day had been plucked from the jaws of disaster.

Ooh! look!  A pub!   Upper Upnor.

A final unwelcome challenge due to a
route through a Royal Mail office.

Good Friday from Rochester to Canterbury also dawned sunny and warm, and we set off on a gigantic bridge over the Medway into the historic  town of Rochester.  We passed the castle and the cathedral in quick succession, and then rode up the interesting and ancient High Street.  Various hills led out of town past a series of big military buildings, including the Royal Engineers' Museum, with many curious types of adapted tank on show outside.

Rochester Castle

& Cathedral

Eventually we came to the coast, with expansive views over the estuary,  mudflats and distant cranes on the opposite bank.  From then on it was mostly along the coast, great views but slow going with a lot of cycle barriers to negotiate, with occasional inland or road bits, to Sittingbourne, for a late 11s stop at 12.30.  The café had just closed, but Maddie persuaded them to re-open for 12 hungry cyclists.  Jennie single-handedly fixed a puncture, demonstrating skills learned at the bike maintenance workshop.

Faversham cafe

Steve & Ann in the 'Husband Day Care Centre'

 

Apple orchards everywhere

and Oast Houses

After lunch the riding was mainly inland; very quiet roads which got increasingly undulating as we neared Canterbury.  At the top of one particularly fine hill we stopped to enjoy the view and consume Hot Cross Buns.  Then the Crab & Winkle Way bought us, very un-crabby and definitely un-wrinkly cyclists into Canterbury.   It was heaving with bank holiday crowds, so much so that some of us had to stop in a pub to wait until it was a bit quieter.

Welcome to Canterbury!

Thanks to lots of people for taking lovely photos and sharing them.

ride to Canterbury · Pete's Saturday ride · Helen's Saturday ride· Sunday ride · ride home

Sa Calobra

For the second time this year CTC South Westerners had made the headlines in ‘Bike Watchers World’,“Early migration of CTCSW’s spotted over the Channel heading south!”

Professor Ian Stein specializing in avian cerebrum evolutionis at the ‘University of Information No One Wants to Know About’ explains,

“Usually it is not until May or June that we witness the now familiar fluffy yellow and blue streaks across the Channel sky, but this year unlike their sparrow cousins, a small group had taken to the skies remarkably early”.  The audience full of keen bike watchers went silent for a second and then all hands went up with a plethora of questions… there was a real buzz in the air, a sense that something truly remarkable had been witnessed.  “Could it be due to climate change?” “…what about changing feeding habits?” “…had they been spooked by their arch nemesis?” (catus Tomas and Co).  And so the questions went on.  Professor Ian Stein did his best to answer, “…it could be any one or all of these things… what we know for certain is that they continue to search for and congregate at eateries… in particular cafés with an abundance of cakes not least chocolate which seems to be a prime favourite.  This continues to be their raison d’etre as confirmed by bike watchers in Mallorca who spotted the distinctive yellow and blue markings gathered and hovering about a local ‘pasteleria’ in the vicinity of Palma.”

 

Pedro

 

Pedro in action

 Little did we know we were the cause of so much excitement in the bike watchers’ universe.  The main grouping landed in the southern part of Mallorca in the outskirts of Palma.  Sabina and myself swooshed into the Port of Soller where a little to the north resided ‘Sa Calobra’.  On our way to collect our bikes I noticed a canine quadruped staring at us behind a front garden wall.  I surmised that he was smiling at us and wanted to make friends.  I started to wander over to make this amiable fellow’s acquaintance… it was then that a local elderly gentleman came running over to me and grabbed my arm.  Pedro he explained was a trained guard dog and had recently swiftly dispatched some rather wicked would be robbers to “l’hospital” with some rear wound injuries in need of urgent attention.  I looked over at Pedro as his eyes became ever more alert as they locked onto me… “Hmmm” I thought and we walked on.

We reached the esplanade and there resting peacefully taking the early morning sun we saw a sweet little cat.  We patted Lola who kept her eyes closed and took no notice of us unlike Pedro who I noticed was watching me.  I took nice Lola’s presence to be a good omen and she certainly made up for nasty Pedro.

Lola

Lemons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (At this point in her proof reading… after noticing what I believe were a couple of yawns… Sabina commented, “… is this supposed to be write up for our bike ride or your autobiography as the modern day Saint Francis of Assisi?”  I took the hint and so dear reader I’ll fast forward to the ride but I can’t help but share a couple of photos of lemons, oranges and an 800 year old olive tree).

Oranges in February

 

Sa Calobra is the name of the little port at the bottom of the climb but to reach it you have to cycle up the other side of the mountain (Mont Puig being the highest point in Mallorca) and then  down, very down, a long winding road to the port where you will meet numerous stray cats lounging on the sea front and taking no notice of the tourists in the cafes.

Sunbathing cats

 

You then have to cycle back up whence you came.  I underestimated how hard it would be and overestimated my own strength (not helped by the fact that I hadn’t eaten enough energy food by far).  Sabina rode to the highest point and very sensibly stopped there in a nature park.

There she would wait for me to go down to Sa Calobra and back up.  The cycle hire lady’s words would prove prophetic… she had said to Sabina, with a smile, “you can relax whilst you watch him suffer!”  And suffer I did.  I’ve marked on the mountain profile where I suffered, conked out, stopped  and worried that I was not going to make it.  On the way back up towards the top my leg muscles had reached their limit… no amount of willing on my part made any difference. 

I christened this phenomenon ‘BMS’, Blancmange Muscle Syndrome.  Yes I could will my legs to push but it was like pushing into blancmange… very little happened and so I had to stop… and allow some energy to trickle back into my legs… but there was very little energy going and I had to stop and pause three, four perhaps five times.  It was embarrassing to have other riders that I had overtaken lower down now come past me as I stood watching and wondering why.  I needed something to get me up the last kilometer or two to where Sabina was waiting.

Sa Calobra is on the far side of the mountains

 

 

 

 

Inspired by Pedro

 

 

 

I thought of Pedro… of having to cycle for my life… and with that I just about made it.  Sabina as cool as cucumber waved at me…and as I reached her and explained she made some positive remarks about my efforts seeing that my obviously rumpled ego needed propping up.  But soon we were on our bikes, wheels spinning so fast as we descended the heights.  It was a fantastically long downhill freewheeling ride back to the bike shop.

As we walked back to our place Pedro was there watching us and I thanked him… from a distance… for helping me up that climb… I think he smiled back and even if I had only imagined it I like Pedro.
As we relaxed that evening in a local bar with a cool drink we heard playing in the background the Mallorquin singer Maria del Mar Bonet.  I highly recommend that you listen to her to reignite that very special Mallorcan feel good factor.

~ Bernard

Autumn tour in Essex

En-route to another adventure

Finally, some dry weather after a pretty rubbish summer.  I had a couple of free days, so decided to try out Essex for size,  a solo for camping trip.  I had a long ambition to try out riding in Epping Forest, so that was the first ten (it's big!) miles.  Then north in quiet lanes to a campsite on a farm, Pightle Farm, at the corner of Essex, Cambs and Herts.   Also the highest point in Essex, I was disappointed to find out later.

That was the plan.  A variety of trains took me and my bike to Wood Street at the south of Epping Forest and I set off into the beautiful forest, wide avenues between oak trees full of autumn colour.   There are many paths and some are better than others.  After finding myself on a very muddy, path where my wheels kept sliding sideways, I did a bit of walking then a bit back on the road, before finding a better path, wide and gravelly.   It's beautiful,  but I should have picked my route more carefully.

Epping Forest tracks

Epping itself marks the north end of the forest, and was full of queues of traffic, and lots of families shopping for plastic Halloween tat.  It was 1pm and I had nearly 40 miles to do before sunset, so it was a quick lunch outside Greggs before setting off into the countryside.

From there on, it was like a different world.  Up the west side of Essex.  No traffic, small lanes, no towns, no cafés (there was a solitary Londis), and beautiful countryside with the odd lovely thatched cottage here and there.   It had an off the beaten track feel.   I expected it to be hilly but it was more rolling countryside, quite high up with extensive views.  I went quite close to Stansted Airport at one stage, but I only sat two planes landing, and no Airport traffic.

Essex lanes and villages

A very enjoyable,  relaxed day of cycling with quiet weather, no wind, mostly cloudy but with the odd sunny spell lighting up the colours.  As dusk fell, lights started coming on in the thatched cottages,  making them look even more cosy.  I got to the farm just before sunset (4.30pm), pitched the tent and high-tailed it to the local pub, the Red Cow.  It looked pricey, £30 for a main course, so I had bought a steak slice for my tea, but when I got there, they were offering Tuesday fish & chips for £10.25.  Delicious.

Last light

I spent a happy evening ear-wigging the other customers swapping stories, (one of whom was a Dolly Parton tribute singer, and another was a close friend of Steve Marriott of the Small Faces), and re-hydrating, before heading back to my solitary dark tent.  The campsite closes on 31 Oct and I was the only customer tonight.  Except ... I had company.  I disturbed a mouse when I returned.   It clearly had designs on my steak slice.

Day 2: Wednesday 

My camping spot

In bed by 8pm, and slept till 7am.   Not bad.  I thought I heard the mouse again, so made a noise like a lion and scared him off.  Anyway, I'd hidden the food.  Steak slice for breakfast (not as nice as it sounds), packed, washed, and away by 8.30.

The plan today is to - you've guessed it - head back south, via a few towns I liked the sound of, a bit further east, to Shenfield, the end of the Elizabeth line.  Same weather: no wind, grey skies, 14 degrees maximum.

It was decidedly hilly.  After riding seven miles to Saffron Walden, I'd clocked up 200 metres of climbing.   Saffron Walden is a nice town with plenty of important looking old buildings.   More hills took me to Thaxted, a real gem of a place with beautiful old buildings.  It reminded me of Shaftesbury with its hilltop church.  It even had an ancient cobbled Street, like Gold Hill.

Ye olde car park at Saffron Walden

Thaxted

Still Thaxted

Elevenses was at Great Dunmow, which wasn't quite as great as its name after Thaxted and Saffron Walden.  After Dunmow, things looked up.  I was back on the high plain, on quiet lanes wriggling across the fields without any apparent logic.  Easy riding to the outskirts of Chelmsford, and then the last ten miles was back on the lanes, a few colourful woods and pretty villages.   I expected Shenfield to be just a built-up suburb of Brentwood,  but in fact it looked an attractive place, probably up-and-coming with the arrival of the Elizabeth line.

Cycle lane to Wittle, near Chelmsford

Blackmore

Arrived at Shenfield Station just before 3pm, hone before 5pm - well done TfL!  It has been a very enjoyable exploration of parts of Essex.  Highly recommended if you fancy trying it: there are alternatives to camping in Saffron Walden, Cambridge, or Royston, all nearby.