Puncture? Prospect of Whitby? Pin Mill? Performance enhancer? (Just a few examples of Ps found on recent WhatsApp messages). No, none of these. The clue is in the above photo – Pond of course! And not just one, either – there were 10 spied between Debden Green and Henham but only one had ducks in evidence. Does anyone know why there are so many ponds on this stretch of road?
There was some debate as to whether this ride should take place due to the weather forecast but in the event 16 Windmillers decided to brave it – Maurice, Andrew, Deborah, Jenni, Simon, Geoff, Graham, Mike, Ken, Lawrence, Suzanne, Howard, Roger, Alan, Charles and Martin – and raised £90 in the process. Most didn’t get too wet but all must have got cold and so the café at Elsenham level crossing did a roaring trade, not to mention a café in Stansted Mountfichet that also welcomed a few.
The Elsenham café was a friendly place and well worth a repeat visit, although conversations were frequently curtailed as trains thundered through. The level crossing must surely be one of the last to use manually controlled gates (known as a female crossing in India) and the operator had his work cut out constantly opening and closing them.
Roger teamed up with Ken, Suzanne and Martin to ride as two pairs from Elsenham to Manuden where he peeled off back to base in Furneux Pelham. Meanwhile Simon headed anticlockwise from Elsenham and was seen again just as he was finishing in Littlebury Green.
Graham and Mike were not encountered en route, nor Alan or Lawrence, but Mike clearly had a puncture to contend with at some stage:
Officially 26 miles, the actual distance covered by those not living in Saffron Walden or Wendens Ambo would have been considerably more, and so well done in particular to Suzanne who started in Abington and rode to Saffron Walden via Hadstock, clocking up closer to 50 miles in total.
Thanks once again to Maurice for planning the ride, Andrew for organising us and hosting the charity box and to photographers Simon and Graham.
Martin
The Windmill Cycle Club 