Sunday, 24 June 2012
Nigel writes: This afternoon was warm and and dry but with quite a persistent westerly breeze. It started off quite cloudy but the sun soon came out and stayed out for the rest of the afternoon.
I was the leader today and led our group of seven riders south out of Cambridge along the busway cycleway to Addenbrooke's. There we turned onto Wort's Causeway for the climb over the Gogs to Fulbourn.
We continued through Great Wilbraham and Little Wilbraham to Bottisham. From here we followed the "old" NCR11 route to Wicken. This took us through Swaffham Bulbeck and into Swaffham Prior.
After Swaffham Prior we rode throgh Reach and Burwell before turning north into the fens.
We then rode around the edge of Wicken Fen to Wicken village.
Our tea stop this afternoon was St Laurence's Church in Wicken, which is at the eastern edge of the village. When we arrived we found a large group of cyclists already there. In addition to Conrad and about half a dozen from our own all-day ride there was a larger group of twenty cyclists from the Veteran Cycle Club. We parked our bikes as respectfully as we could in the churchyard and entered the church.
Tea was served in the nave of the church itself. We loaded our plates from the excellent spread of sandwiches and cakes and sat down in the pews to enjoy it. It felt a bit strange to be eating in a church but the vicar was there to make us very welcome.
After making a donation to pay for the cost of tea we left and returned back to Cambridge.
Our route home was via Upware, the Lodes Way, Lode, Bottisham and Quy. We were riding into the wind for much of the time which slowed us down somewhat, but it didn't bother us much: we didn't have far to go, it was warm and sunny, and we were all feeling pretty relaxed.
Poster on NCR 11 advertising teas at Wicken Close-up view
I was home at 6.15pm, having cycled
42 miles.
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