Chelmsford - The Edge Magazine

ROUND TOWERare brewing a beer especially forour festival!THURS. 5th - SUNDAY 8th SEPT.40+ REAL ALES + CIDERS & PERRYSFOOD AVAILABLE @ EVERY SESSION‘LIVE’ MUSIC EVERY EVENING£3 REFUNDABLE GLASS DEPOSITFREE ADMISSIONT H E W O O L P A C KMildmay Road, Chelmsford. Tel: 01245 259295Chelmsford - Cambridge CycleAfter a period adrift, Ye Olde EdgeEditor and Lengthy Boy decided torekindle their ultra homme loveaffair by cycling to Cambridge andthen getting out on the lash.We left Chelmsford at 7:15am onFriday 2nd August. The previousday had been an absolute scorcher,but little did we know what we werein for.We each had a set of rough directions.Originally we were going topick up a cycle route out the backof Writtle Agricultural College thatsupposedly takes you all the way toour chosen destination, but afterlooking at a map, yours truly suggestedwe headed out to ChignalSmealy, Mashbury and High Easterfor starters, so that’s exactly whatwe did. But we hadn’t been pedalingfor very long when we bothcommented, “Bloody hell, this ismuch harder going with a set offully loaded panniers” (my own particularset purchased from the cyclestall on Chelmsford Market).We ended up at Leaden Rodingand commented, “What’re we doinghere?” So it was then a straightchoice between taking the A1060 toHatfield Heath or the B184 to GreatDunmow. We took the latter as I’dalways fancied breakfast or brunchat Scrumptious...Praying for the rain to stop inThaxted GuildhallLengthy Boy had booked us into abudget accommodation place rightnext to Cambridge railway stationcalled Roomz and I wish I’d taken aNay truckin’ fubble!photograph of our particular roombecause for £67.50 for the night wegot a set of bunk-beds, a sink, atoilet and a shower, all crammedinto a space not much bigger thaneight foot square!Great DunmowTraffic Warden hasa right result bookingEdge two-wheeler forparking on double-yellowlines whilst having a spotof brunch in the excellentScrumptiousTearoomsDefinitely a tearooms worthvisiting is Scrumptious inGreat DunmowTell you what, readers, our poachedeggs, bacon and mushrooms onwholemeal toast, washed downwith fresh mint tea and soya lattecoffee was absolutely spot on.But it was whilst we were filling ourboots that we (a) spotted a fellowcyclist in Dunmow who was puttingus to shame as he was on his sixthday of an Edinburgh-London jaunt,and (b) the heavens absolutelyopened and we had no waterproofclothing whatsoever!You cannna let a bitta rain put aspanna in yer spokes though, soonward we continued, up throughThaxted and Saffron Walden, andto be honest it didn’t seem asthough it was very long before wewere on the outskirts of Cambridge.I’ve done a fair few 60-mile ridesfor charidee in the past, plus theNorwich 100, whilst the most I’veever covered in a day - on noblytyres to boot - is one hundred andthirty miles, so really, this was just abit of a trip to the corner shop!Hardly 5-star!Then we both showered (but honestly,not together) in about half-anhourflat before we were back outon our bikes and eagerly cycling topub no: 1 of the day at around2:00pm. With the afternoon skynow thankfully bright blue and thesun fortunately shining brightly, thiswas now turning out nicely intowhat cheeky Friday’s off work aretruly all about.Fact is, Cambridge is designed tobe cycled and we managed to takein a fair old number of pubs overthe next, oh, 10 hours, starting atThe Eagle and finishing our nightsat out the back of The CambridgeBlue, before eventually having asurprisingly comfortable and decentnights kip back at Roomz.Then we were up bright and earlythe next morning at about 7:00am -hangovers inc. of course - and backinto the previous days sweaty,stinky cycling gear and over tocatch the 7.40am train to StanstedAirport before cycling back home toChelmsford from there.Try it, readers. You’ll love it!Page 18 The Edge 077 646 797 44