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Cabin Dairy Café, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex – Breakfast Meeting on Sunday 30th January 2011
Report by Mike Davies R1200 GS Adventure
Photo by Dave Massey R1200GS
On Saturday 29th January, during the evening I saw activity on the East Anglia Section forum, whereby a few people were asking if anyone was going to the breakfast café meeting on Sunday 30th January.
I actually replied that I wasn’t going due to recovering from a back strain, but I did check to forecast before I went to bed. This promised a dry cloudy day with low temperatures and light north easterly winds.
I got up in the morning and feeling less back pain I decided to ride over to Burnham-on-Crouch, some 35 miles from my home at Wivenhoe.
After a hasty breakfast of porridge, fruit juice and coffee (never like going out even to a breakfast meet without something inside me!) I washed and dressed in my winter gear, wheeled the GS Adventure out of the garage and carefully mounted the bike. It fired up straight away (keep in on trickle charger during these cold winter periods) and set off cross country towards Burnham-on-Crouch. Temperature gauge was reading 2.5 degrees and flashing!
I have ridden and driven this route many times over the years, taking the Layer-de-la-Haye road out of Colchester, which leads over Abberton Reservoir (always a variety of birds to see here), on to Heybridge and Maldon. The new by-pass built here some years ago makes it easier to get around Maldon and avoids the very steep hill in the town.
Traffic was light and I was soon sweeping my way through the bends into Burnham-on-Crouch.
I arrived at the Cabin Dairy Café which is located in the centre of the High Street by the War Memorial on the sea wall. Free paved parking is provided by the café owner (also a biker – Harley-Davidson) and I was the first and only bike there when I went into the café at about 09.45.
I sat down and ordered a coffee with scrambled egg on toast – this is 3 eggs and 3 pieces of toast! After ten minutes a biker walked in – a new Bmw Club member, Sam Grainger, riding an R1100S. Turns out he lives a few miles up the road at North Fambridge!
We were then
joined by Ian Levitt-Smillie, riding his new R1200GS and shortly
after this Dave Massey arrived on his R1200GS.
After an hour or so chatting we paid our bills and went outside to mount up. Now, the paved area was full of sports bikes and others as this café, being bike friendly attracts a regular biking clientele.
What I’ve always liked about biking is that we all chat to each no matter what bikes we ride – try doing that in a car park just after you get out of a car!
Before leaving, one of the assembled bikers warned us all of a mobile Police radar trap set up just before leaving the 30 mile an hour limit! I passed it at 29.99mph and gave them a happy wave!
I had an enjoyable ride home and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of potholes I encountered – seems like the councils have been busy!