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5 Counties (New Year) Ride Out 2013
Report by Dave Massey
Oh what a lovely morning, well is was at least 4 degrees above freezing when I left for the rendezvous point at Tesco’s Bury St Edmunds some 20 miles away.
We met at 10:00 am and by our planned start time had arrived we had 6 bikes with 9 keen participants.
The first leg, through Brandon, on to Ely and down to Newmarket (this dealt with Suffolk and Norfolk on our quest), was just a bit parky, with something of a cross wind which made for interesting riding across the fens to Ely, fortunately no signs of flooding on the sections of road we used but evidence in the fields of considerable waterlogging, just as well as some sections were well below the water level in the ditches. Our first stop, to warm up and feed ourselves was at BK in Newmarket, not a style of restaurant I usually frequent which made for making the difficult decision on just what sort of burger with what sort of filling to order, just too much choice, or perhaps too little depending on your perspective.
The next leg took us south and then west towards Royston, turning off the main road we took to the back roads through Barking and Barkaway and on to Puckeridge, from there swinging east towards Bishops Stortford (this covered Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, 4 out of 5 done) where we decided the delights of Costa Coffee in Tesco was a better bet than Birchanger Services by the M11.
Once restocked with coffee and cake we headed for home,
heading east towards Dunmow and Braintree (Essex done 5 out of 5
completed) where we headed north through Sudbury and finally back to
Bury St Edmunds, by this time in the dark with the temperature
dropping, time to head for home.
The intrepid few were Nina, Bob
& Sue, Terry & Val, Peter & Sue, Brian and myself, Dave.
The
stats: circuit distance .. 145 miles which would take 4 hrs 16 mins
if you did it in one go!!
So how come I managed 167 miles
Rain: none
Sun: lots
Temp: min 5, max 11
Perfect day for a ride, Happy New Year, see you for the 2014 ride.
Dave Massey
Assistant Social Secretary