This was my first ride with Cycle chat and I wasn't disappointed. I left home and made my way to Tower Bridge for 0900 hours and after a while of searching I found the group. After a coffee we set off down down The commercial Road and made our way down to Canning town and along the Barking Road through East Ham and into Barking.
We then made our way through Dagenham and onto Rainham where we were to have our first break for refreshments. Just before the Rainham marshes the leader and another ride were involved in a collision that resulted in a couple of bruised and cut riders.
Inspecting the damage to the bikeHowever Topcat1 had damaged his wheel beyond repair and had to walk to the cafe as the rest went on to meet him there. One of the riders rode back with another's wheel so he could ride on to meet us. Along the path to the cafe we skirted along the Thames path where we saw the concrete Thames Barges used during WW2 and a diver made from iron and a peregrine falcon swooping over the Thames.
Sig got her husband to drive over to the cafe so Topcat1 could be driven to Decathlon Lakeside to buy a new wheel so we could continue our journey to Southend. After a hour or so we were of again travelling through Tilbury, Chadwell St Mary ,Linford, Mucking and out onto the five Bells Roundabout and into Basildon and Pitsea.
We then made our way across the very busy Sandler's Farm roundabout and up through Benfleet. This time I managed to get up Bread and Cheese Hill which I was very pleased about :)
From there it was along the A13 and into Leigh On Sea and down onto Southend Sea front for Chips and beer before the train ride home....65 miles for the day :)
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