That was a very fine weekend.
I left home at around 2pm, expecting to have plenty of time to get to York, but actually arrived around 10pm after a somewhat knackering 300 mile route. I broadly followed tiermat's route, which aside from traffic on the M25 and M40 was mostly not too busy. Distance and time alone made it a bit of a slog.
Once arrived at Chez-Crinkly (with some help from TigerBiten, GPSes seem to have some issues with the roads around there), I had a couple of hours to be replenished with tea, and to organise and prepare myself. Progressively more and more cyclists appeared, variously scattering bikes in the living room, and around the front and back of the house. Eventually, just before midnight, we set off from CrinklyLion's house for the station, to meet up with final few people.
At the station our numbers swelled to fourteen, although Mr Bunbury only met up with us briefly before continuing on his way. As mentioned earlier, the remaining thirteen seem particularly apposite for the ride.
The ride out across the flats of Yorkshire was very nice, and had only minimal traffic, unlike the FNRttCs I've done from London, for which the traffic rarely disappears before the first hour is completed. Once we hit the moors, the hills really weren't too bad at all, far less trouble than I had been led to believe. At times the skies cleared completely, and the moon and stars were very visible. The weather throughout the night was actually far better than had been forecast, with absolutely no rain, and a stiff tailwind that blew us along.
That tailwind was fine whilst cycling, since it almost matched our speed, most of the time we cycled in almost still air. When we stopped for 3amses, it was in a particularly exposed location, and the stoves were not all that happy with the wind. I sat down in front of mine and together with my pannier and the stoves own wind shield, mine wasn't too bad, and boiled up a saucepan of water in only a few minutes. I think four or five stoves were brought out, and some hot water was thrown away, since too much was available! TigerBiten had a good supply of water, and indeed I think we only used a fraction of it for tea and coffee! If we do this ride again, we really need to organise cookers and suchlike more carefully, there were far too many, and it would make more sense to have fewer cookers, and more things like wind breaks. Of course much Cake was also consumed with our drinks.
The ride down from the moors into Whitby was fun, although Blue Bank was not the final hill as might have been expected, and we had to struggle up another one before the final run in. I was a bit nervous of the steep downhills, and didn't do near 50mph down Blue Bank! The breakfast stop was very good, that was one of the best breakfasts I've had after a night ride, although it's unusual to meet anyone else in that sort of situation, after a night ride we normally have cafes entirely to ourselves. In that one the locals almost outnumbered us.
After buying tickets for the steam train, we had a brief wander around Whitby, and along the breakwater out from the front. There were an eclectic mixture of Goths, the exact definition of Goth is more than hard to pin down, and seemed to cover clothing from black and red through to pink, as well as styles including Japanese Amine, really big boots, black makeup, and what seemed to me to be neo-Victorian (something like a cross between traditional Victorian dress and steam punk).
The guard on the steam train seemed worried about whether we would be able to get all the cycles onto the train. There were only a couple of additional bicycles on top of our seven, including two tricycles. Actually we fitted them all on easily, with plenty of spare capacity, I've fitted almost as many cycles into the space normally provided for two bicycles on many modern trains.
The steam train ride was very pleasent, it takes a quite scenic run through the values, with the excitingly chunky terrain visible on both sides of the lines. We went past the Pacific Class Sir Nigel Gresley at one station, which would have been an impressive train to stop and look at more carefully if we'd had the chance.
Once we got to Pickering, we continued on our way across the flatter lands of Yorkshire, the weather continued to be exceptional, and was very sunny at times. Eventually we got back to York, having shed the odd rider along the way.
TigerBiten and myself arrived back with CrinklyLion, and had a brief chance to recuperate with tea and chips in my case. TigerBiten got his head down for a couple of hours, although I didn't feel particularly tired at that point. Eventually we all departed the CrinklyLion's good hospitality, and I left for the journey across the motorways of the UK. I took a much more direct route than on the way up, a lot of it being via the A1(M) and M1, which wasn't at all busy compared to the journey on the way up. I had to stop several times for a loo break, a bit of a snooze, and something to drink. By the time I got back to Croydon I'd drunk three cans of Redbull and a can of Coke, which managed to keep me awake, but not as well as it has worked on previous occasions. I guess being up for 40+ hours makes the body a lot less inclined to accept caffeine as an alternative!
Clearly I'm still a bit zonked, even after a nights sleep, with the extra hour from the clock change. One of my neighbours just knocked on the door to tell me I'd left the car lights on, after picking Talisker up from the cattery (it's a bit dark and raining here in Croydon).
In summary, the ride from York to Whitby made a fine night ride, although possibly a little shorter than would be perfect. I'd do it again, although the fifteen odd hours spent driving to and from the North was less than optimal, so I may need to consider an alternative approach to travel before doing that trip again.
