Poppies

Day Two.

Got up feeling quite stiff, but not as bad as I thought I was going to feel. Breakfast was good - beautifully laid out on the plate and very, very tasty. One of the benefits of these holidays is a full english breakfast every day.

My tyre had gone down overnight, so pumped that up and we loaded up the bikes. First stop, after a couple of miles, was a relative of Ian's, where we had a cup of tea and a catch up chat, then on the way to Cambourne, which is west of Cambridge.

We picked up the cycle route quickly, the weather was good and the jumper went into the panniers, not to be seen again until the end of the holiday. The cycle route ran through fields, along country lanes and was a pleasure to ride. The only downside was that a lot of the fields were planted with rape and the smell became a bit cloying through the day. We only found two fields with poppies growing in them and that is where today's blip came from. Well done to the farmer for not spraying it - the field looked beautiful.

We headed towards Saffron Walden and into Essex, passing through some beautiful small villages and stopping for a pint at a pub looking over a village green. Cricketers were beginning to arrive, but unfortunately, didn't start before we travelled on. We reached Saffron Walden at about lunchtime. Very nice place, lots of old buildings, but we had to search a bit to find a pub. When we did, we struck gold - it was having a barbecue. There was a range of barbecued meats and vegetables, plus a range of salads. Quantities were generous and all for eight pounds. There was a good choice of beers, as well.

We set off again, and slowly began to realise how far we still had to go to the hotel (Ian had got a good deal, which made it about the same price as a B+B). We hadn't reached the edge of the map we were on and had quite a long way to go across the next one. It became a bit of a slog. Later I was waiting at a corner for the others when Ian joined me, but there was no sign of the other two. Ian went back to find them and didn't come back, so off I went. I came across them by the side of the road. Dave had two broken spokes and his back wheel was doing a good impression of a letter 's'. Fred managed to fiddle around with it and got it turning, but with a regular scrape as it came through the brakes. But at least it was rideable.

I had visions of the wheel collapsing, and was wondering how and where we were going to get it fixed - certainly not today, as it was Sunday. We stopped once more at about half past six for a pint - the miles were piling up by this time and we still had a long way to go. We carried on, aiming for village after village, and still not seeming to get any closer. I was so tired that when a red hot air balloon rose over the yellow rapefields, I couldn't stop to take a picture. Eventually, we crossed the A1 and the end was in sight - we had to parallel it for a couple of miles and then find the hotel in Cambourne.

We finally got into Cambourne at about nine o'clock and joy of joys, passed a bike shop which did repairs, so that was first on the list for tomorrow morning. We got to the hotel, had a shower and some supper in the bar and then it was bed.

Having thought we'd done a lot of miles yesterday (twenty) we actually covered forty four miles today! Not a lot for some people, but we just don't do this sort of mileage. As Dave said, "I hit the pain barrier, bounced off it and then went through it several more times."

Ian consoled us with the fact that it was only five miles to Cambridge, our destination tomorrow. As if we'd believe that!