Thanks everyone. For the morning, I was looking for a reasonably-direct route because I'm bound to have limited time. I had spotted something like
TFC's Terling route and
bhoot's Galleywood - Great Baddow (think I've got those roughly right?) I've also taken a look at
Writtle and the town centre now, but that's actually the same distance (17.2m) as via Baddow, so I'm favouring the latter at present (no messing around with lots of lights and turns). To be fair it's only a couple of miles more than I'd have had to do on a direct line if the old A12 were still intact, and the same as motorists do going round the bypass!
I do see the B1137 as the obvious way on the Witham end, even if Terling would be more pleasant. I take it that I join it at the Lion Inn because I come off the cycle paths, rather than because I appear from some side route?
I'm comfortable on fairly busy roads, and nor am I a conscientious objector to cycle paths. I just want a fairly direct route that doesn't suffer from the usual problems in unfamiliar areas:
- Cycle routes that stop suddenly because it hadn't occurred to their designers that you might want to go through, rather than to, the town centre, leaving you a bit lost
- Mammothly-slow give-way-at-every-turning-on-loads-of-roundabouts cycle diversions
- Routes only fit for serious mountain bikes
- Missing out on the really-good route that all the local riders know
May as well take the best route available, as I may never need to do it again. And I like maps, so I rather enjoy planning these things out in advance
So Galleywood it is, I think, though not actually Papermill Lock, as the straight run into Boreham goes west of that?
