It was a very pleasant evening.
In the end Tokamak, chief and I rode over via a hybrid of the out and back routes posted above, to maximise the scenery.
Several (I lost count!) pints were had, of various types (I had the Keltek Trevithick's Revenge, the Mighty Oak IPA, the Oscar Wilde and a few Red Fox Coggeshall Golds).
En-route back, I followed Tokamak and chief as far as the outskirts of Sandon, then parted company to make my way back to Witham. I think I missed the obvious route (reversal of the outward leg above) and instead ended up on Sporhams lane, a smaller quieter road, with a ford.
I then must've nearly broken the record for the slowest descent of North hill ever.
Bouyed by the excitement of one ford, I decided to tackle a second and varied my route back from papermill lock to take me through the Nounsley one (famous for it's "slimed bottom", as pointed out by nutty).
Needless to say, despite coasting through in a straight line, making no sudden moves whatsoever, I fell foul of nutty's slimed bottom and landed in the water. At least I'd already been soaked through from the rain, so didn't mind the dunking so much.
All told, a spit over 40 miles by the time I squelched my way back home.