Sunday, 22 April 2018
Greg writes:
Lodes Of Fun!
Who said you couldn't have fun in The Fens? The 16 people on this ride seemed to have
Lodes!
We met at 2pm at Brookside – well 14 of us did – in the bright sunshine – an unseasonably warm April day brought out the white pasty legs and summer cycling gear (well on me at least!) We were joined today by first time rider with us Vic and also a transferee from the Saturday social rides in Lizzie. She felt that since her daughter was struggling in the heat to do the London marathon she couldn't just sit at home and had to get out and do some exercise! Congrats to all her family for their Sunday efforts then.
So it was that at 2pm prompt the 14 of us assembled at Brookside headed off. This is quite a large group and so thanks go to Tom who offered to run the Tail End Charlie position – assisted by Neil. It helps greatly when you have a volunteer for this role when the group is so large….
The Brookside Assembly
We duly headed up Trumpington Road and turned left onto Barrow Road. It was looking glorious with a fine show of blossom - indeed throughout the trip the quality of the flora was quite splendid. We have gone from Winter to Summer this year without passing through Spring and this has led to all the blossom being out at once.
We picked up an extra rider as we passed Mark's house and then headed onto the busway. Once again as we passed through the ever expanding Addenbrookes site we marvelled at the changes from the last visit…..I hear tell it will be fabulous when it is all finished!
At the corner of Mary Archer (or some such description) we gained our final addition as Peter W joined in. Now we were up to 16 – a large group but manageable with our quite brilliant and awesomely wonderful leader (he said modestly!) Actually, I did nothing – it was Neil and Tom at the rear who made the group workable – but since I am the one doing the write-up I may as well claim all the glory!
We wound through Ninewells – here you can buy a box of a house for well over £1 million pounds and enjoy the communal gardens which at this time of year have changed into a communal swamp – underwater and unusable. Not sure the NHBC guarantee covers that ….
We went up Worts Causeway and things started to really heat up as we scaled the Cambridge Alps – well the Gogs. We stopped at the top to cool down, have a drink and regroup, as usual, before then really cooling down in the fast descent to Fulbourn.
Scything Through The Gap
Here we scythed through the gap – Haggis Gap that it is – who names these roads? – and left Fulbourn headed to Wilbraham. Just outside Little Wilbraham Greg called a halt – as he stopped to get off his bike and admire the splendid cottage garden at the corner. There working hard in this garden was 'Dave' who, with his friend, tends this large plot. It was looking quite magnificent – though apparently all the tulips will be lifted in 2 weeks as the summer flowers are put in. I felt worn out just looking at it!
In An English Country Garden
We then headed off to Bottisham and thence on to Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior. The latter village has unusually two churches – it was one of the few villages in England to have 2 parish churches side by side.
As we continued on to Reach there was some consternation – we appeared to have missed any of a number of possible turnings to Lode. However, why would we want to cut the corner when we could do a hearty loop into the Fens proper – since the sun was still shining mightily? So we pressed on to Reach where we eventually then picked up one of the old drove roads out into the Fens towards the Lodes Way.
This road was poorly maintained and potholed – so fitted right in with the rest of the South Cambs network! So it was that we proceeded in to the Fens to the cries of 'Hole'. Some locals seemed slightly bemused at the sight and sound of us strange folk with our squawking and hand waving though being viewed as strange by Fen Folk seems a mite unusual!
Now we were heading into the wind – and this raised some complaints. Unfortunately I have not yet perfected control over all the elements – I rather felt that laying on ample sunshine would absolve me from criticism over wind direction and speed but it appears that this is not so! You can please some of the folk some of the time …..
We picked up the Lode's Way and this then led us on through to Lode – where Greg insisted we were all having Lodes of Fun. He seems to suffer from a mistaken belief that endlessly repeating a joke makes it work better. Someone should disabuse him of this notion…..
We arrived at Anglesey Abbey tea rooms some 10 minutes early and despite the fears of some there was still plenty of choice of cakes. Indeed, Peter W was so overcome with the display that he decided choosing just one cake was beyond him – so he selected two!
We spent a very pleasant 35 minutes in the sunshine chatting – joined by Simon form the all day ride and by Ian and family who had arrived separately. Indeed, it was such a large group that Greg had to use his weather controlling skills to round everyone up – laying on a loud crack of thunder to summons the group for the final leg back to Cambridge (well, he claimed that he had done this! Delusions of being some kind of Norse God, methinks)
Greg Summoning The Group!
We duly left at 4.30 prompt and picked up the new cycle path to Quy – which is a great improvement and Dennis was very impressed by how much safer it made this part of the journey. One happy customer at least! We all went along casting our eyes at the threatening clouds – but our luck held.
We passed under the A14 and then the 'Great Dissolve' started. A few opted for the Airport Way route whilst the majority of us headed towards Fen Ditton whilst Peter, racked by guilt, felt he had to put in a further loop to burn off some of the cakes he had consumed!
At Fen Ditton we picked up the Riverside path – shedding various members of the group on the way, as is customary.
More left us at Green Dragon bridge and at Riverside Anne made her graceful (!) exit leaving just half a dozen of us to wind through the back roads to the Station. Now we were down to just five people on the busway when who should appear but Lally – just back from the US and desperate to get a mention in the ride report – always happy to help!
I got home at 5.35 and the actual group had ridden some 30 miles together. It was great to have such a good turnout for a Sunday afternoon ride when we could all enjoy sunshine, blossom and Lodes of Fun in The Fens!
Greg Tucker
PS. You knew I'd do that as the last sentence, didn't you!
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