5 November. Back to CAC. 30 miles.

This should have been Vernon’s memorial ride but instead it became a CAC ride as a result of the new lockdown. 18 responsible Windmillers therefore set forth singly or in pairs on clockwise and anti-clockwise rides around a route which had been used during the previous lockdown, enabling almost all to join near to where they lived. Those going clockwise were Geoff, Andrew, Howard, Alan, Brian, Graham, Mike, Simon and Roger whilst those going anti-clockwise were Martin, Ken, Lawrence, Charles, Maurice, Rod, Deborah, Jenni and Nick. There was plenty of waving to those passing in the opposite direction.

This is where we went:

The weather was nearly perfect for a November day – a misty start in places which soon cleared to reveal bright sun on higher ground, no wind and quite mild. Maurice hosted the charity box, which added a further £107 to the magnificent sum of £4k+ already raised this year but, as Rod said recently, ‘Let’s make it over £5k by the year end’. Maurice also generously provided some beers, in return for a larger donation to the box of course. But lugging a 500ml bottle of Adnam’s Southwold up the hill to Barkway was Martin’s excuse for taking longer than usual. (10.45am just seemed too early to consume a beer at Maurice’s but it went down a treat at the end of the ride.)

Rod also observed recently that CAC rides can lack the support of others when things go wrong, as they did on this ride for Alan (puncture, but he got home after several pump-ups) and Geoff (unknown problem but he got home ok). All being well, there should be someone heading in the opposite direction or coming from behind, depending on the start and finish times.

Different Windmillers see different things when out on a ride. How did Ken and Martin, and perhaps others too, miss the pumpkin field? Deborah and Jenni not only saw it but Deborah got amongst them too (see photo above) and Simon stopped to take some really arty farty photos which make the field look more like a lunar landscape: