Tuesday 26 June 2012

Premiere Journee - Off we go!

The couple of days immediately preceding our departure were a blur of list writing, shopping, packing, unpacking , re-packing and general panicking. Up close our little idea looked preposterous and downright scary. The terror factor increased exponentially with each weather forecast I listened to or watched. The gods of wind and rain were clearly not going to be on our side and my dream of travelling light in and with summer gear only were swiftly swallowed by the nearest storm drain.
Despite making the night of 6th June last as long as possible by waking up every 5 minutes I still could not believe it when Thursday 7th June actually dawned and I still had not thought of an urgent and immediate need to be somewhere else....Even when Lesley and her family arrived at the appointed hour I was still in denial - particularly as my bike had only emerged from the pits 5 minutes before after the last second discovery of a faulty valve...


Our neighbours very sweetly set up a start line so  with many good wishes ringing in our ears we set off down our bumpy track with most members of our family in convoy behind. All except Lesley's sister and her partner stopped at the end of the track and headed home ( perhaps they were the wise ones? )The weather was hot and humid as we pedalled down familiar roads towards the lovely pub in Woolpit with Scottish smoked salmon firmly in our sights.I began to doubt the wisdom of packing my full winter survival kit.The lunch was suitably scrummy and the landlord's eyes were out on stalks when I replied truthfully to his question about our ultimate destination. The beginning was a slightly phony war in that Shaun had hatched a plan to meet us in Woolpit with most of the children and our panniers so that we could do a final goodbye.
That part of the plan all worked to a tee. However, as we were loading up properly in the pub car park , we felt the first splodges of rain on our helmets and tried to ignore them amidst the emotional goodbyes. We also failed to understand the message from the 2 ducks sitting on a nearby roof. It felt great to be on the road proper - just us and our kit off on the long planned adventure.
Before we had gone a mile , the rain became steady and by the time we were well into mid Suffolk it was a monsoon. We had followed much of this route on our jaunt to Long Melford and had joked about the hail on that trip...It's all about perspective I guess..By the time we hit Lavenham for a much needed wee stop I was literally soaked to the skin. I may as well have stood under a waterfall for the afternoon. The ladies in the Guildhall Gift shop were very understanding and excused our sloshing arrival and departure with good grace.


After Lavenham we hit previously uncharted territory - especially a housing estate in Sudbury which we tackled initially at first floor level then exclusively on "No Cycling " paths. At least the miserable weather meant that everyone was tucked and warm inside their houses not out spotting errant cyclists..


Sudbury meant crossing the Stour into Essex - the third county of the day. I had planned a gentle cycle along the side of the river where I grew up reminiscing about the enormous fish I used to catch at Henny but sadly we were so wet , cold and miserable all we could do was put our heads down and keep pedalling as best we could. It crossed my mind as we aquaplaned through innumerable puddles/shallow lakes that my new tyres were quite roadie in profile and I wasn't entirely sure of their grip in the wet particularly when fully laden.
The last push up out of the valley was a struggle particularly as the roads resembled Italian mountain tracks in places - their surfaces eroded by torrents of rain and cohorts of Porsche Cayennes. My chain tried to surrender on the last uphill and popped off but due entirely to Lesley's technical abilities was rapidly back in place and we coasted down to my friend Judy's beautiful and immaculate cottage.
I knew that our total drowned rat appearance would not coordinate well with cream carpets and fabulous artwork so we hesitated on the doorstep before knocking very timidly. Judy's welcome was wholeheartedly gracious and very warm . We were immediately ushered to piping hot showers, cockle warming tea and a delectable supper. Our clothing met a similarly warm welcome in the tumble dryer. I was pleased that my double plastic bag wrapping of everything including my novel and my hot water bottle had worked so that I had something dry to wear after the shower and in bed. After thorough route planning for the day ahead which took heed of Judy's local knowledge  and filled in the missing map corner we collapsed into our cosy , electric blanket heated beds with the comforting thought that it couldn't get worse than that ....

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