Top ride (just like everyone else has already said!). We ECE'ed it and a bit more, the only trains running in the vague direction of Witham (ie to Basildon) not being tandem friendly. Had a decent run up in the morning although our arrival was a bit tardier than ideal, so only time for a quick tea and toast before the depart. Seemed like a fast ride to Abberton and then on to Latchingdon, where most of us practised our long audax ride petrol station technique.
The leg to Stock was harder, the wind had got up and the ride was up....We very nearly popped into Hyde Hall cafe as we went past the entrance on Buckhatch Lane, but decided to try out the D&B at Stock instead. After detaching ourselves from locomotive duties, we managed to grab a table and had tea and cake as that was reasonably quick. On to Danbury where we opted for the Coop as our control, only to discover a grid-locked car park. I suspect many of the car-borne shoppers live within easy cycling distance. I think it was somewhere on the last section that the sun finally came out, giving us a very pleasant final few miles to Witham.
Our ECE was only back as far as Upminster, but we knew we had the full distance to East London in front of us. We reached Chelmsford around 17.30 and are both scarred from the experience, the traffic was truly horrible........ a different ECE plan for December I think (hopefully the trains will be running to give more options). On the plus side we did see lots of fireworks, ranging from rather wimpy back garden affairs to large official displays.