Christmas Mk2 at my father-in-law's provided the opportunity to extend the 45 mile direct route, and pick up 39 new tiles and extend the cluster by 55 to 2122.
A break in the weather meant that there was no lashing rain (just a few light showers before dawn), but just the vicious headwind, which was (mercifully?) consistent, rather than terrifyingly gusty. Slow going, therefore, but once my overambitious breakfast (6 weetabix, slightly stale, pint of tea) had gone down, not too terrible. I had the rather unwise idea to cross the Thames at Duxford ford. "Do not cross in high water" the sign said, but without any indication of how to judge the height. My feet were wet anyway, from a flooded footpath earlier, so I gamely shouldered the bike and strode out into the current. Four paces later, and with the water over my knees, I gamely turned around. There was, I knew, a footpath to a bridge I could follow, so that's what I did. It was fine, if a little muddy until it was flooded. I gamely shouldered the bike and strode out once more. It, too, was fine. The next flooded bit was fine too. Then they began to become less fine. One was distinctly sketchy - I climbed up the bank and walked along the field margin. I began to lose count of the flooded portions. At one point the crown of a freshly fallen tree blocked the path entirely. Unwilling to return without a fight I snapped branches off until I'd made enough of a gap to post the bike through sideways, with only cosmetic damage to a shifter...
All of these shenanigans slowed me down somewhat, and a quick map check revealed that smileywife and smileyboys were imminent, so I cut off the planned loop to get the 8 tiles to the northwest of Standlake. Still got there before they did, and only knocked about 7km off the route in total, so I should have just stuck it out. Would have added a further 21 tiles to the cluster with that as well. Ah, well, there's always next time. Nevertheless, it was a good adventure.
(and, unrelated, the next day we spotted an audaxer on the Cumnor Road. I was more excited by this than my wife was. I didn't think it was likely to be an audax, but turns out it was the Festive 500 ride from Bristol to Cambridge and back)