Sunday 15th January

Finally we have our cycling mojo back 🙂

We were woken very early this morning by the condensation raining on us and soaking our duvet and pillows. Joy of joys. We were cold stiff. After two warming hot drinks and giving the dogs a run in a nearby paddock, we got on our bikes and wobbled off down the road towards the Church.

First off, we went down Back Lane instead of Cock Lane. Kenn was convinced that it was Back Lane, which was fine by me, I knew that it was the second left that we came to and was a bit perplexed as to how I had missed seeing the first left as we cycled along. As it turned out, I hadn’t missed it, Back Lane was the first left. DOH.
As we turned we saw another cyclist, seemingly looking for something on the floor. We stopped and asked if he needed help. He had dropped a screw from his clipless pedals and he couldn’t find it. Kenn had a good look about while I held the bikes. We couldn’t find it either. The guy had a lovely Cannondale bike though.

We carried on out way, turned up a road called Church Lane and on to Barford Road. None of this seemed right but we were heading vaguely in the right direction so we pedalled on. Reaching a Crossroads, we followed the road along, which looked about right and then saw a road sign. We decided to head for Ringland as we knew that it wasn’t far off our destination, we figured we could go from Ringland to Taverham to Drayton. It seemed like a plan.
Ringland Hills is so called on account of the hills. Kenn was swearing. A couple of times we had to get off our bikes and push up the hills. This served 2 purposes. One it got us up and gave us a breather, secondly, the walking helped defrost our feet which were feeling like blocks of ice by then. The walking was good. Bugger trying to get up in granny gear, walking was the way to go.

Right about here my trip meter decided to play up in the cold. As we howled down a hill and along a level-ish bit and then down some more, the wind whipped tears from our eyes even though we had our cycling glasses on, my bike computer said that we were travelling at 4.1mph. I think that it might have been lying.

It took 55 minutes to get to Church, including walking up 2 hills and stopping to ask directions when we lost our bearings in Taverham. We reckon that it was about 10 miles, give or take and not the 2.4 miles that my bike computer said. We were definitely going faster than a slow walking dawdle.

Once at Church, we grabbed a quick squash and a biccy and went in to warm up. We took the bike computer off and took it in to warm it up. We thought that it might help. I think that a new battery will do wonders for it too, but I can’t afford one today. It will have to wait until mid week.

Our Pastor came to us after Church and asked us to do him a big favour. We said that we were happy to help in any way that we could. He quietly handed us £20 and asked us to go to the Red Lion in the village and have a Sunday Lunch. We were blown away by his generosity and had a lovely lunch before getting back on our bikes and heading back.

We had a fab ride home, buoyed up by a great Church service and a great lunch at the Red Lion. We took the Costessey Road out of Drayton as we were planning to pop by Pets At Home to price up a fish tank heater (we have been gifted a lovely 45 litre ‘FishBox’ tank. It has all its gravel and a filter but no heater. Both of us love fresh water tropical fish and have kept them for ages, just not of late).

We went to Costessey Mill, up the main road, hooked a left at the White Hart and up the hill, and up and up. At the top, we turned right along the A47 and cycled along to the Longwater trading estate where Sainsburys and Pets at Home is. I pointed to a freshly dead rabbit and Kenn stopped and picked it up and popped it on his bike rack. The dogs are going to be very pleased with us. So freshly dead that it was still warm! We are rural kids, not townies. You can probably tell.

We put the bikes in the back rack at the trading estate and wandered off for a warm in PAH before getting back on with our ride. From the trading estate, its about 4.5 miles back to the van. We made excellent time. We came back on the road that we were supposed to go on. We came back via Cock Lane, a much better route. We know now, and won’t be making the Back Lane mistake again in a hurry unless we chose to take that route.

The bike computer, having been warmed at Church and at the Red Lion, was behaving itself. By the time we got back it was reading 12.02 miles and we had done the trip in about 52 minutes all in all, so were chuffed. As we are claiming 10 miles for the trip there, we think that it might have been more but until we take that same route with a working computer.

All in all a great ride. We had a good time and look forward to more good rides in the very near future. Next planned ride is to Sainsburys and back for some bread and milk tomorrow.

Raffie

 

So far with the new challenge: 125.02