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24
riders gathered at Ealing town hall on a
cloudy but warm Sunday morning. Some had come expecting a ride to
Eltham Palace
in South East London, but sadly Ben (who was going to lead that ride
originally)
was nursing what was described as a knee the size of a football. So we
were off
to Camden Green Fair and Bikefest instead.
(Keep
an eye on the ECC website for
announcements about Ben’s postponed ride to Eltham Palace, rumoured to
be
happening in July).
It
was great to see some new faces, indeed
some who were pretty much new to cycling full stop; the plan was to
ride up to
Regents Park along the Grand Union canal, and canal riding is a great
way to
gain confidence on a cycle. It’s car free and a good chance to practice
what I
consider the two most underrated cycling skills, ringing your bell to
warn
pedestrians you’re coming (difficult to do without scaring them) and
riding
slowly in a straight(ish) line, both of which frankly, are good ideas
when
cycling alongside waterways.
We
left shortly after 10am, on a diagonal
path to Perivale to avoid the worst of the hills that North Ealing is
sprawled
across. We popped across the A40, up past Perival tube and just as the
road up
the side of Horsenden Hill started to get quite steep, we turned right
onto the
towpath of the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union canal.
The
Krypton factor moment came when we had
to thread our bikes through the motorbike gate which is just after the
entrance
to the tow path; sort of like doing a big metal puzzle. Some old hands
swung
themselves and their bikes out across the canal round the side of the
gate, and
thankfully there were no splashing sounds to accompany this. A quick
talk from
Brian about how to take care on the towpath and we lined up and headed
off
towards London proper.
A
brief stop at North Kensington Sainsbury’s
about one and a half hours in; a chance to grab a drink, something to
eat and to
avail ourselves of the facilities, as well as learn that sometimes it’s
better
to get off the bike than to try and tackle the sides of the very steep
bridges
there.
Approaching
Little Venice we left the tow
path (it gets very narrow there) but there’s a good cycle path
alongside it,
even if a couple of the barriers are a little fierce; again though,
good for
practising control of the bike at low speeds!
A bridge and couple of roads to circumnavigate
and we had left the Grand
Union Canal and were in view of the Regents Canal, which we joined on
its south
side (with the north side on that stretch being a strict non cycling
zone as
it’s a residential mooring).
At
this point we crossed the canal to its
north side via a wooden “helter skelter” bridge and it was great fun to
watch
the 25 of us ride down the other side, looking like one of those games
where
the marbles start at the top and roll and bump their way down to the
bottom.
A
curved ride round the north of Regents
Park, past the very posh houses and then through London Zoo (no tickets
required), and we exited the canal towpath at about 12.35pm and walked
into Regents
Park itself via St Mark’s Bridge.
Back
onto the bikes for a very short ride
down to the Green Fair which occupied a large space on the east side of
the
park. We arranged to meet back near “The Honest Sausage” which I
suggested
might make a good alternative dinner venue if anybody didn’t fancy
lentils or
salad and we split up to survey the stalls (finding my appraisal of the
food on
offer was a bit unfair as it was well varied and very good).
A
short rest in the warmth, with the sun
even making an appearance a couple of times, some wine, some cider and
even
some attention from the roaming masseuses. Then a few rides round on
the
various strange cycles down at the bike fest, a bit of fettling at the
Dr Bike
and we met up again at 3pm as planned. At this point a few people took
advantage of the freedom of the pedal cycle and decided to pop down to
the Spanish
festival on Regents Street and make their own way back.
The
rest of us retraced our tracks along
the canal (having to deal with a very stuck red light at Little Venice
in the
way only cyclists would know how) and we arrived back at Ealing town
hall at
around 5pm having been led by Murray across Perivale Park from
Horsenden Hill,
(despite Murray initially heading off for Birmingham by missing the
turning to
take us off the towpath)!
Thanks
to all that attended for helping to
make this such a great day.
Ride
Stats:
Total time: 7.5 hours (10am to 5.30pm)
Cycling time: 4 hours 10 minutes
Distance cycled: 32 miles (see, it’s easy!)
Moving average Speed: 7.9mph
Fluffy ducklings seen: Quite a few
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