A quick glance at the Ride Log confirmed it was ages since our last Suffolk-based outing and high time we paid a return visit to Castle Hedingham and its splendid old coaching inn, The Bell.
Whether it was the distance getting there, the forecast of wind and rain, or just the prospect of Brian leading the outing, turnout was low with just six Windmillers gathering at The Bell. And with Brian setting us off clockwise on a route he himself had labelled anticlockwise, it wasn’t the most auspicious of starts.
So it was that Simon, Maurice, Roger, Paul and Jeremy followed Brian, still heading clockwise, off towards Clare, some 15 miles distant. The outbound leg was delightful with quiet lanes and fine views across the Colne and Stour valleys.
Arriving in Clare, we took the scenic route via the Priory into the Country Park. A community and retreat centre run by Augustinian Friars, the Priory is, according to its website, “a tranquil place of prayer, natural beauty, and silence.” Or it was until Jeremy shattered the monastic silence with a yell of “Stopping!!!” as we pulled up alongside the graves of recently departed clergy. Talk about waking the dead.
Pulling up at Clare Country Park, we enjoyed some good coffee and cake at Platform One Café before setting off on the return leg to Castle Hedingham. Mid-way back, the wind and rain finally caught up and from here on it was heads down, every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost, all the way back to The Bell.
Drying out over a good lunch, our conversation was wide-ranging, everything from Simon’s eye-wateringly expensive taste in white goods through to Maurice’s plans for stable clearance; we only hope he’s told Lyn.
Brian
The Windmill Cycle Club 