Wednesday, 12 July 2017
Nigel writes: The weather forecast was right: after a rather cloudy day the sky cleared and the sun came out, allowing us a gorgeous evening ride in the low evening sunshine. Joining me in this very pleasant activity were Camille, Dimitris, Mark, Neil, Tom, and John. Once again the club was visiting a new pub stop, The George Inn in Babraham. To get there we set off from Brookside and followed our usual route east along the river to Fen Ditton and Quy.
Ditton Meadows
Just beyond Quy we turned onto the long road which follows a fairly straight line from there to Six Mile Bottom. As leader I decided to set a moderate pace which everyone was comfortable with, but I could see that Camille, John and Dimitris were feeling a bit frisky so invited them to go ahead and have some fun, waiting for us at the cross-roads in Six Mile Bottom.
When we reached Six Mile Bottom Camille and Dimitris were waiting for me and the others. However there was no sign of John: clearly I had not been precise enough if my instructions about where to wait. The rest of us turned right along the main road before turning left again for the long and very pretty hill that climbs towards West Wratting. In the evening sun this was a beautiful stretch of road.
Chilly Hill by Wadlow Farm
After a pause by Wadlow Farm to regroup we carried on to West Wratting and joined the main B-road for the short distance to Balsham.
For those who find the climb too Balsham to onerous
In Balsham we were joined by Chris, who had been chasing us ever since arriving at Brookside about 15 minutes after we had departed. We continued past the pub we visited last week and, after briefly stopping to allow Nigel to revisit the bus shelter where he had tried to sleep at 4am on an overnight Audax last month, dropped down towards Hildersham.
The descent from Balsham to Hildersham
Crossroads near Hildersham Photo: Camille Stavrakas
Crossroads near Hildersham Photo: Camille Stavrakas
At Hildersham we crossed the A1307 to Abington and then followed a rather dull loop round the village and along part of the A505 cycleway before turning back towards our pub stop in Babraham.
Babraham
The George Inn in Babraham is a large pub but, like last time I visited it, was relatively empty. We ordered food and drink and sat outside near our bikes. Whilst waiting for our food to arrive our conversation covered various erudite topics including an interesting discussion of quantum entanglement with Camille.
Photo: Camille Stavrakas
Photo: Camille Stavrakas
Afterwards we returned back to Cambridge via the Babraham Research Campus and the A1307 cycleway. This didn't take long but I was reminded just how poor this relatively new cycleway was: narrow, encroached by vegetation, and with loss of priority at numerous side turns (many of them with poor sightlines). Despite this we arrived back in Cambridge without incident and the group dispersed near Addenbrooke's. I arrived home just before 10pm having cycled 51km (
31 miles).
Nigel Deakin
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GPS track (GPX).