Day One

Friday 26th October. After a fairly short car journey in rather dull weather, we arrived in Wymondham, a small rural village consisting of little more than a pub, a post office and an antiques shop. I suppose the local entertainment involves getting drunk, buying dodgy antiques and posting them to people you don’t like. Nevertheless, it was a lovely peaceful place, and in a very scenic location.

First stop - The Old Rectory Bed and Breakfast, which was to be our home for the next two nights. It was a nice old house, which we were fortunate to have to ourselves, complete with equally nice hosts on hand. Our hosts also seemed to know a lot about Stilton cheese - which was mildly disturbing. There is apparently a local connection with Stilton cheese, to the point that the man who lived over the back fence wrote a book about it. Ideal secret Santa pressie I would have thought!

Colin Mannakee, Lindsay Franklin and me were first on the scene having travelled up in convoy. We were soon joined by Phil, at which point we set off to a local tea rooms for lunch. The tea rooms were just on the edge of Wymondham, situated under a large windmill (probably not a very effective windmill however, as it had no arms).

Setting off in earnest, we attempted to roughly follow a route in a recent edition of Cycling Weekly. The route was pretty much a loop taking us through various small villages and down country lanes. The area in general was very scenic, and the country roads were mostly free of much traffic. After 40 miles or so at a relaxed pace, and a couple of completely deliberate deviations from the route, we were back at base to greet Tony and Diane when they arrived.

Rounding out day one, our hosts cooked us a lovely 3 course meal that evening, followed by the obligatory visit to the local pub, just to check out the local facilities you understand.

Day Two. All on board and off to do the cycle track around Rutland Water. Very scenic, especially being autumn with all the pretty trees…. The track was a bit on the rough side, but it’s a pleasant ride and definitely worth doing.
Riding out to Rutland Water, and a complete circuit of the track took us up to about 40 miles. The track is punctuated with tea rooms and nice vantage points from which to admire the view across the lake. Luckily there were also a few bike shops about as Lindsay didn’t know his own strength and managed to snap a chain going up a rather steep hill.

Apparently there was a village or two under this lake, and the weird looking church was dug up from one of these villages. Not sure whether the flooding was intentional, or some old woman left the tap on, but either way I can’t imagine the villagers were very impressed.
That evening it was back down to the local pub for the evening meal. The food was very good and I have to say the beer was passable as well. After all it would have been rude not to….
I had to sneak back home on Sunday morning, but I gather a good (if slightly wet and windy) time was had by all on the final ride in the company of Rob, who had driven up so he could join the group for the last day.

Overall the trip was very enjoyable and well worth doing. The location was very good, and even the weather almost held out long enough. Looking forward to the next one.

Home | Contact | © Glendene CC