• Ride 1. Harold Wood to Waltham Cross
  • Ride 2. Wimbledon Park

Ride 1. Harold Wood to Waltham Cross

Photos from Owen

This was an ambitious ride scoped and led by Owen. We had tried to do it on July 11th. A trackside fire closed the Elizabeth Line meaning that a majority of the registered riders failed to get to Harold Wood. Two riders did make it and with Owen leading cycled the route. Report here. We decided it would be good to try again so here we are, reporting on the ride on Aug 8th.

There were once again travel issues so the start was very delayed and the early part of the ride was slowed to allow a rider to catch up. But in the end 6 riders did join Owen and rode his terrific route.

Some commemnts ffrom Owen:

No major incident occurred during the ride. Philip had gear problems which meant he struggled on hills and John lost a screw on his bike rack which meant it rattled over rough terrain. The end of the ride was at Cheshunt station and not Turkey Street station. That’s because it’s a more scenic route to the station as well as the fact that it has step free access. The ride did not finish until 3.15pm which wasn’t bad at all since we had a coffee break as well as a lunch break. Despite the numbers that failed to turn up for the ride I thought the ride went well. The weather was great and everyone enjoyed themselves. 

GPX file available, From_Harold_Wood_to_Waltham_Cross_2.gpx

Ride 2. Wimbledon Park

Photos from Paula

Report from Ride Leader Jean S.

The weather on Saturday 8 th August continued sunny -though not quite so hot as it has been, and so an ideal day for cycling.

We were 10 plus leader & backmarker -setting off from Dulwich Park at 10. The hot weather has been causing the trees to lose some of their foliage early and so we made reference to the trees in each of the parks we visited.

At Brockwell Park (which has 1700 trees) we cycled by the lovely Art Deco Lido where the water temperature has been balmy 23 degrees for the past month. Out the back gate of the park, we continued on Brixton Water Lane and crossed Brixton Hill.

We made a small diversion to view Brixton Windmill, which was new to a number of the riders then continued across to Clapham Common (2500 trees-30 species) where we turned left on Windmill Drive to cross the South Circular Road A205 and continue along Thurleigh Road towards Wandsworth Common. (3,500 trees)

Across the common , we cycled by Wandsworth Prison and downhill along Magdalen Road to Earlsfield station. Slightly difficult right left turn then left to continue down Revelstoke Road to the gate of Wimbledon Park.

We had our coffee stop there at the café ( which serves a delicious fry-up-but very slowly…) After a half hour break in the shade of the balcony we set off for the return journey. A few people peeled off at Earlsfield station for Waterloo and we mainly retraced our steps to finish with a lap of Brockwell park with its beautiful views, and along the cycleway on Roasendale road, to arrive back in Dulwich park- after 16 miles just as the church bells tolled One o’clock!

Many thanks to John for backmarking.

NB To see photos in full: right click on image, choose “Open image in new tab”, open the new tab.

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