Had a fab ride yesterday, 212 miles to Dunwich and back.
I left at 9 which was a bit later than I'd planned but helped get the kids sorted for their club and the roads in my village were piss wet so thought I'd give them a little more time to dry out. As it was when I left some of the roads were wet with puddles, some damp under the trees. This made for a nice change in a way as I was having to think about my riding a bit more than usual with extra planning for corners under trees where it was likely to still be damp. The dampness lasted till about Sible Hedingham by which time the roads were full dry everywhere. I've done the roads from Takely to Sudbury a few times and they really are a nice set of bends. All was going well and I was in good time to meet
@Le_Fromage_Grande so thought I'd fill up in Sudbury and take the time to change the Sat Nav route from twisty to fastest. ETA at this point was 11.12am so thought switching to fastest and knowing I'm always quicker than the Sat Nav I'd be there for 11.....
So Sat Nav turns me towards Colchester which I thought was odd, I knew the route ended in Ipswich but the map screen on the go doesn't show a lot. Anyway, Ok, let's go this way. It then says turn left, but the road is closed, so it then takes me down the following left. This started in a not to long ago surface dressed road, should I turn around
Nah, say's it's only a mile. Surface dressing turns to goat track
. But I'm here now 700m to go. With 400m to go the road turns to this
Fucksake
I now give up and turnabout, none to easy as I'm in mud pretty much and then slowly back up the mud covered goat track to where I started. I check Googlemaps to see where the fluck I am and turn north to Hadleigh, which is where I should have gone in the first place and which was a left rather than a right at Sudbury. Bloody sat nav
By this time I've lost near 30 mins and arrive at Le Fromage Grande just as he's about to leave. Sorry again for being late!
Anyway, from there I follow to Dunwich via Rendlesham. Nice ride on actual tarmac
We parked up and had some lunch and chatted bollocks for a while. I might have taken a pic but was too busy fending off wasps, flies, spiders and ladybirds from my bacon and sausage roll!
Bout 2pm we headed back, this time via Yoxford. I really like that road it's a nice mix of stuff with some pretty scenery. I'd got a 2nd wind and was enjoying just riding. Few miles down the road Le Fromage Grande headed back towards Ipswich and I carried on towards Needham Market and Bildeston which was a great steer from a chat over lunch as the road was a really good one. Cheers for the warning about the bumps, they were certainly very bumpy.
By this point I was back near Sudbury and I was going to head up to Long Melford but was feeling the ride by this time so headed back to Castle Hedingham for a stop at a pub. Refreshed with a coke and stand up to stretch the legs I followed my nose back to Takley. At this point the Sat Nav was showing me a way I'd not been before so why not and let it take me home. Unfortunately this was via a level crossing where I had to wait for about 8 mins
Luckily a young lady cyclist in the shortest dress I think it would be possible to get away with on a bicycle made this wait a bit more bearable
My spirits were soon dampened by not 1 but 2 sets of temp traffic lights with lots of traffic, Karma I guess!
Rolled back into the garage about 5.45pm with a massive smile on my face and a need for a cider. That's the way to spend a day off
