OPS Tandem Adventures…August Bank Holiday ‘07

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As the sane world awoke & smiled smugly at the thought of three days free of freedom & leisure, we hauled our sorry hung-over selves out bed first thing Saturday morning, grumbling, moaning, berating our own foolishness & generally cursing John. We examined all possible escape options before finally resigning ourselves to our fate…

 

Whilst Dave & I, hid in the cupboard & prayed for a monsoon, Luke dusted himself off, swore a bit & generally professed himself ready for action. More alarmingly, our 4^th team member, the all action Johnson Arnold, had somehow manage to encase himself in lycra racing suit, complete with padded nappy and was busy making himself dizzy with excitement.

 

The glorious & somewhat belated summer sun shone warmly on us, swiftly engendering even the most skeptical of us with a feeling of optimism. Everything was fairly quiet & serene as we wended our way out of London, the odd passer by paying us a friendly smile & children craning their head out of the car window trying to work out what we doing…a false sense of security & popularity indeed as we headed into the unforgiving heartland of the Chav.

 

Heading South past the Dome & Canery Warf we began to realize that our road discipline would have to significantly improve if we were to even make it out of our fair capital alive. Passing through the Thames tunnel & surfacing in Woolwich, it became immediately apparent that it could only have been the result of a desperate attempt by depressed locals to escape. Can’t see that place making the tourist trail any time soon. 

Having teamed up with Rich Jones & his Pa Colin, the gang of six headed East for the Garden of England, departing at 12 on he dot. Not sure how we missed it, but Johns promise of rolling meadows and the sweet smell of hops steadily dissolved into duel carriage ways, shopping precincts and multiple industrial estates as UK Cycle Route 1 (Never, Never Trust It!) abandoned us & forced us resort to the good old A2. Cheered on by the kindly local youth with chants ranging from ‘Avvvv Itttt’ to ‘Queers’ with lots of Ooooy Ooooy’s along the way, we spent most the afternoon more lost than not and finally rolled into Canturbury YHA at about 8 O’clock. A hot shower has never felt so good and six refreshed cyclists waddled into town for a well-deserved feed.

 

Morning came round fast and spurred on by the sight of a train time table, Dave and I once again began to contemplate mutiny. All the while the virtuous and industrious quartet of Engineers were busying themselves with repairs, somehow managing to repair a knackered wheel with a beer can, a hammer and a fair bit of natural talent.

 

Having caught a glimse of the fabled Kentish countryside the previous day when we skirted along the coast by Whitstable for a while, Sunday saw us really get into some beautiful scenery as we followed an old Roman road straight down to the coast at Rye. Looking like something off a film set, this picture perfect little town was almost enough to make us forget that we needed half a tub of talc down the back of our pants to sit down for lunch. Having been blessed with relatively flat roads for the four hrs so far that day, a look inland towards the Southern Downs made us realize that a hill or two might be in the offing that afternoon…and so they bloody well were.

Downs??? Have you ever been there??? Like Mount bloody Everest in sections I tell you…3 hours of pain later, 6 fairly broken individuals straggled into the Hostel at Blackboys near Lewes in East Sussex.

 

The previous two days had seen us in the saddle for around 15 hours so as it became time to roll out on Monday we consoled ourselves with the fact that we only had about three hours riding left until we hit our 48hr deadline. The ache suddenly eased and we had a brilliant morning passing through sleepy villages on our way down to the Sea. The last hour was filled with delirious excitement as we realized that fish and chips, cold pints & life without tandems was not too far away. A sprint finish saw Myself and Johnson roar past traffic & pip Dave & Luke on the line as we hit Brighten pier just about bang on twelve o’clock.

 

It was definitely a grueller but at the same time we had an awesome three days & most importantly managed, due to the massively impressive generosity shown by so many of you, to raise what looks set to be over £800! This money will have a significant positive impact on the lives of many many people both in this country and abroad & we look forward to telling you all about that in next months newsletter.

 

Thanks for all the support and Interest, we feel that it was a great success all round & if Johnson can get Dave and I drunk enough to agree the perhaps another extended tandem Trip beckons in 2008!       

Marcus Fairhurst

 

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