Ah! the joys of the eastern flatlands.
Mrs Miggins and I had decided to take our daughters and their families, including our four grandchildren to CenterParcs at Thetford forest for the half term weekend.
We thought it would be a good opportunity to test our new touring set up for the trikes including a new Radical Cyclone trailer and also get a few training miles into our "bent" legs.
Our planned route would take us from a start in Ketton, via the back lanes to Peterborough and then out into the Fens via Whittlesea, March, Southery and Feltwell before the final drag up from Brandon to the site at Elvedon.
We set off just after 6am and made good progress through the villages and the short sharp climb out of Castor to Ferry Meadows at Peterborough. This is a good route into the city that manages to avoid all the main roads.
We had a coffee and pork pie stop alongside the rowing course and then followed the off road route into the city centre.
NCN 63 then follows the banks of the Nene over paved but potholed track more suited to an upright machine than a recumbent trike.
It was at this point that the brisk Southeasterly wind began to make itself felt.
We were reaching the end of this first section, when I saw a horse alongside the path ahead. As we approached, said horse sauntered across the path and pulled his tethering chain taught across the path at a trike stopping height of about 300mm.
As this path is on a steep raised bank, it was not possible to divert around Dobbin, so i was forced to dismount and back him up and hold him while M M took the trikes past. He was a trifle put out.
It was then a change of river bank via a curved bridge and then on into Whittlesea.
We stopped here for a second breakfast at the Sunshine cafe before pressing on to March.
I had planned the route on Ride with GPS and thus far, there had been no surprises but this was about to change.
Just east of March, the gps directed a left turn, perhaps I should not have ignored the sign for No through road.
The surface gradually deteriorated until it became mostly grass and mud with occasional patches of concrete. I could see traffic on the road ahead so we continued until we came to a robustly locked gate.
Not to be deterred, we unhitched the trailer and carried the trikes down a ditch and around the gate to re-join the track on the far side. Things improved from here and we were soon back on more trike friendly roads.
On through Tipps End and the village of Welney having crossed the old Bedford river and 100 foot drain. We took a tea stop at the Welney wetlands center. Mrs Miggins was beginning to feel the effects of the very exposed route and the near constant headwind.
The wetland birds had clearly been put off by the windy weather and were all hiding, there were a lot of very grumpy Twitchers in the cafe.
Suitably refreshed, we pressed on, only to be caught out by another section of gps induced comedy off road. This time it included sandy forest path. Fortunately it had not rained, for had it done so we would have had to turn back as traction was becoming an issue on the short climbs.
It was getting towards dusk as we made it to Brandon. From here it is the busy road through the forest to Elverdon and it has to be said that we were both very pleased to see the right turn into CentreParcs. As we pulled away from reception, my nearside front tyre suffered a visitation, bugger!
120kms for the trip and we both raised our hats to Teethgrinder!
We had a great weekend with the family and reversed the route on Monday but cut out the off road sections. Needless to say, the wind had done an about turn and was now blowing NW and it was tipping it down. We availed ourselves of the hospitality of the School House B&B at Welney and what a good decision that was. We awoke to bright sunshine on Tuesday morning and after a fine breakfast, set off for the 80kms home.
Dobbin did his chain trick again, but this time I took the time to shorten it which has spoiled his tricks for future passing cyclists.
Soup and tea were enjoyed at the Castor coffee shop before the final section.
258kms for the weekend.
An enjoyable ride but those Fenland roads can be soul destroying when it's windy.