A quite windy and even hillier 400k DIY. Mid-Essex start/ finish. Wanna come?

[Oscar's dad]

Friday evening or (very early) Saturday morning. Advantage of Friday start would mean more rest on Sunday but two nights with none or little sleep. Saturday would mean only one night lost but less rest on Sunday.......one to ponder on I guess.

I'm in favour of a Friday start.  Feel free to start a thread or I can do it if you like.

Anyhow, back to the ride we've just done.  As an exercise in vanity and also a wish to keep a record of my audax campaign I have a dedicated thread so I have posted my ride report there.  If you're interested you can find words and photos HERE (scroll down to post #113)

I'd like to thank you all for your encouragement and most of all Huggy for, once again, being my riding companion.  I have no idea why he does it 

[CrinklyLion]

Also need to consider sleep at some point. Travelodge possibilities at just over 300km coming out of Hull or Spalding at about 450km.

It looks like you're staying too far east for the CrinklyHotel to be of use, but on the off chance that routing via York is remotely feasible we're quite good at providing crash space, hot baths, 3 hour laundry turnaround, beanzontoast and unlimited tea facilities.

[Oscar's dad]

CL, thanks for your very generous offer but I'm not sure a visit to York would work.  This stupid plan has various nonsensical features: It has to go through as many places as possible called Witham (some pronounced "wit" (as in witty) and some "with"), it has to go over the Humber Bridge and it has to be 600k.  If you want to be involved you either have to (a) ride with us or (b) move 

[huggy]

My pics of this ride:

A midnight feast outside McDonalds at Marble Arch


The road leading to Ditchling Beacon


Made it to the top


View at the top of Ditchling Beacon



The trusty steed - it probably never dreamed of rides like this when he was born!



Ryka's Cafe for breakfast, before ascending Box Hill


View on the way down from Box Hill, one of the paybacks of the ride 

[Oscar's dad]

Nice pics, memories to treasure!