I think I’ve just about reconnected with all of my existing bicycle ride routes post the great reopening of access to the Tendring Peninsula for me. Boy, I miss riding out around those parts. Being cut off at source, as a link road which leads to nowhere was being built, was no fun.
Sunday lunchtime was the final missing piece in the jigsaw. It’s no great shakes. It’s the old Bobby George BONER route with the added Great Bentley little offshoot circular add-on.
I have been able to ride this route before, but the road closure during all the rebuilding work meant I was forced along a pretty shitty detour that involved cycling a very bumpy, gravelly little path right alongside an A road. No ta.
Sunday was pretty much bliss. To my surprise there were also some wonderful new stretches of tarmac along the roads I have not ridden in over a year. We are talking proper black, deep, thick tarmac here as well.
Essex County Council went through a phase of thinking that road rebuilding meant spreading a layer of glue along the road and then dumping a truck full of shingles all over it.
It didn’t take long, however, for the new tarmac to already have a Stone Roses style paint job along one particular stretch. Someone has had fun with a very large pot of white Deluxe.
The lanes became more enclosed and quieter as the ride progressed. I then realised I was actually riding the Ride of the Falling Leaves, albeit a couple of months too early.
Mother Nature really is fucked.