Sunday, 18 June 2017
Simon writes: I had hoped that this would be the hottest day this year, but there could be worse jobs to have to do in a heatwave. Mounted sentry outside Buckingham Palace for hours at a time, or being locked in a car with Derek Jameson and Tony Blackburn on the radio... in any weather. Though in my case it's rolling around the floor in grinding grit, welding sparks and the rust and sticky underseal that falls off the remains of a VW camper-van that's even older than but about the same condition as me!
Still it was my pleasure to lead our first Sunday afternoon visit to Clavering Lakes. A small posse consisting David S, Simon D, Johns E and F joined the start of the ride, soon to be joined on the railway bridge at Addenbrookes by Mike K.
Our ride out, and its mirror image return back, followed the fast-track no-frills standard CTC route to Ickleton so as to have more time for exploring villages and hitherto never seen before little country lanes beyond, normally only visible from behind an all day ride leader.
Speaking of which, I'm sure we met them just outside Lower Langley Green on our way to further Ford End. With the snapshot fleeting glimpse in passing I recognised David W and John S, our membership secretary (or "Paperwork Troll" as he describes the role to us).
Having orbited Clavering instead of by-passing it we reached the Fishing Lakes, to add a mile and a half to the 24 mile distance.
All the staff that we met there were friendly and enthusiastic which enriched our experience and I look forward to taking our group there again.
The outlook over the lakes from the veranda appended to their Lodge Cafe is reminiscent of the Riverside Café at Ickleton, on a slightly more grand scale and they stayed open until the time that their website says they do.
It was about 5pm as we were passing Duxford back towards the A505.
I was occasioned by a young Z750 ninja rider wearing cut off jeans, who felt it necessary to try telling me from inside his full-face helmet, that despite being on a vehicle not much wider than mine and a power to weight ratio greater than a twin turbo Porsche 959 Sport, that he couldn't get past us with only a meagre 10 foot gap and half a km of dead straight visibility ahead, because we were flouting his interpretation of the Highway Code by riding two abreast!
But to start a sentence with a conjunction, we all got home safely having covered 52 miles including my 6 mile round trip to Brookside and back.
Simon Gallaway
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GPS track (GPX).