Not one, but three days out.
Friday night, we loaded up the tandem and set off...
Well, we would have done, if the sprockets weren't completely knackered
Fortunately, we take the precaution of having a spare tandem handy. It's quite heavy, has straight bars, the front mech is indexed, so rubs in some gears, and it had no pedals or saddles on when we dug it out from under the tarp.
We swapped everything over, and set off, wobbly at first, up and over into Surrey. It was hard work, and it was dark by the time we had completed the 23 miles to Horsley - just in time to check in before the gates were locked.
A late start, and a short trip, including a bridleway, to Ripley for brunch. Good cafe*, interesting village, basically only there because of cycling. More another time.
On to Pyrford, Old Woking and Woking itself. Not very interesting, but it did have an Evans and a passable cafe** with unlikelyly good home-made cakes. Back via Wisley, stopping to look at the tiny, but lovely, church.
Over the A3 via a footbridge - with steps
and a series of deteriorating lanes through a wood, destroyed by 4x4s. A turn onto a gated bridleway took us up onto a disused airfield, where the runway, complete with weeds growing through the gaps in the lines of tarmac, sits incongruously in the middle of a field of wheat. Back in short time to the campsite, in time for a picnic with some friends who had come out from London for the day (looooong story
). Twenty miles, though, of good and varied riding. Well, it was twenty miles by the time we'd ridden twice round the campsite.
This morning, another late start, and a complete repack to take some weight out of the front panniers. Everything packed up easily, and we set off on the three miles to Ripley again, breakfasting in the cafe* again, browsing the book of old photographs of the village.
Refreshed, we went up through Pyrford, West Byfleet (where we sheltered from the rain, laughing at the stupid proces in the estate agents). Next, we crossed the M25, and went through Brooklands, past the magnificent banking on the right, and a Tescos on the left. Spurning the charms of the Brooklands Museum (back another day, I imagine), we climbed the only real hills of the day and down into Weybridge, where, as the rain restarted and I smelled food, and realised that it was approaching 2pm, after which pubs seem to find it impossible to serve food, I took an executive decision to stop, at, IIRC, The Crown. Good tea, and tasty lunches, but we decided to forgo cake, and set off again.
The riding got really fast (for us) now - up to Twickenham, where we had a very expensive tea & cakes on the green, watching cricket.
We met a couple with their baby who had just purchased a lovely Bob Jackson tandem with Alf Webb wheels, and a really fab spec (but only two chainrings
). Hope they have many happy miles on it.
We considered calling C&L cause we were on their patch, but we thought they'd be zooming around, and not able to keep down to the speed of our loaded tractor
Crossed the river into Richmond, and, after negotiating the sporadically signposted gyratory, we got moving quickly again. On to the South Circular, which had been worrying me, but turned out to be not so bad, and very quickly we were at Wandsworth. Crafty riding round the one ways got us on to our road and, despite flagging slightly, the thought of home, tea, and a bath cheered us immensely.
Ahhh. Sitting down relaxing at last. 30 miles. Not bad for a two average riders on a heavily loaded tandem, and at an average of 12or so mph. Hands buzzing, @rses a bit uncomfortable, but we did it.
* Watson's, on the corner of the High Street
** Cafe Continental, opposite-ish Evans, under the railway.
