The Malststers proved to be a great venue, it was my first visit but not my last.
It is a while since I started a MEMWNS ride from Spa so I had forgotten about some of the fun to be had when OD is leading the ride... It also seems that I had forgotten how to ride a bike as I somehow managed to fall off before we had even set off
When I remounted and caught up with OD, Jem, Hotblack and the Hustler, I asked OD where the route took us, "I don't really know" he replied in his usual reassuring way, "I didn't check it but it's on my Garmin so what can possibly go wrong". Of course, with it being an OD route, we were only a few short miles away from our final destination when, instead of turning towards our chosen hostelry, we suddenly veered off in a completely different direction. That pattern was repeated at the next few junctions until I was forced to ask OD if we were heading for the Heybridge in Essex. Meanwhile, the man himself was demonstrating his pre-Alpine form on Dakota and whizzing off down the lanes at a furious pace. He must have eventually gone too fast for his own Garmin because he slowed down to let us catch up and promptly announced that we were off route and he didn't know where we were exactly. It was around this time that we noticed the large black clouds massing overhead. OD's solution was to career off down an unmade lane on the basis that it probably went somewhere interesting. It was only when the Hustler pointed out that it was, in fact, signposted as a footpath that we persuaded him to stay on the tarmac. After a few (incorrect) guesses about where we were, we came across East Hanningfield.
Shortly afterwards, I took the executive decision to time trial down the main road to try to beat the lightning storm that I could see in the sky and reach the pub at a reasonable time. The rest of the group stuck with the lanes but we all turned up there pretty much at the same time which says as much about their speed as it does about how slow I am at the moment.
The designated pub was the Heybridge Inn and I found Captain Birdseye, Tomsk, Oaky and Jiber in there keeping an eye on their bikes whilst enjoying a Dorset Rogue by Piddle . Nice as Dorset Rogue was, it was the only ale they had on that evening and Jiber was being quizzed by Heybridge's answer to Michael Parkinson so it didn't take much to persuade us to go with OD's suggestion and repair instead to the Maltsters.
Again, it was bikes locked together outside the pub but they let us open the blinds so we could keep watch.
As OD said above, we were made to feel welcome by the bar staff and pretty much had the place to ourselves. Better still, they had a selection of ales available that those of us on beer strava had never had before. We sampled; Checkpoint Charlie by George's, Dawn 'Til Dusk by Saffron, Mad Dog Mild by Hop Monster and The Hopfather by Wye Valley. Mad Dog Mild was the clear winner of the Quaffers' Choice and was generally agreed to be one of the best milds any of us had ever tasted.
The conversation took a wide range of twists and turns but often returned to our plans for OD's caravan pub. We all agreed he would make a splendid mobile landlord.
It was just warm enough to cycle home without knee warmers but it was my latest return for a while and the streetlights were well and truly off by the time I returned. If only I had been sensible like Jiber and planned to leave after a quick drink for an early night. Then again, if only Jiber had been sensible and actually stuck to his plan