Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Nigel writes: Today was the second day of autumn, and with sunset now occurring just before 7pm our evening rides are making the transition from being daylight rides to being almost entirely in the dark. For this evening's nocturnal jaunt my companions at Brookside were John R and Sven, with Chris meeting us a few minutes later on the busway.
Tonight's route was one of my favourite evening loops. We set off south out of Cambridge along the busway and DNA path to Great Shelford. After a short pause at the level crossing we continued to Little Shelford and on to Whittlesford, Duxford and Ickleton. The pace was fairly brisk and we made rapid progress.
Francis Crick Avenue
By the time we reached the top of Coploe Hill it was quite dark. We continued south to Catmere End and made a loop south through Littlebury Green before turning back north to Ickleton. The darkness made these familar roads feel quite unfamilar, and I periodically had the not unpleasant experience of not being exactly sure where I was.
After dropping down to Chrishall Grange and crossing the A505 we reached Fowlmere at about 8.20pm. This gave us time for a short diversion via Thriplow on our way to our pub stop at The Queen's Head in Newton. However as we cycled into Thriplow we were distracted by the delicious smell of freshly-cooked chips drifting across the road from The Green Man and decided to stop there instead. After all, the Queen's Head doesn't do chips...
Beer and chips in The Green Man
John, who had further to go than the rest of us, decided to give the pub a miss and head straight home. The rest of us went inside and ordered drinks and bowls of chips before sitting down by a cosy log fire which gave us rather more warmth than we needed.
Leaving The Green Man
After a very pleasant half hour in what is probably my favourite pub for evening rides we set off for home. The three of us rode together as far as Newton, where Chris turned off towards Whittlesford leaving just Sven and me to continue back to Cambridge via the Shelfords, the DNA path.
New lighting on the busway (Exposure: 4 seconds)
I arrived home at 9.40pm, having cycled
34 miles.
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GPS track (GPX).