Essex Branch Ride to Walkers Snacks

Today we met at the Rose Cafe, Chelmsford.There were 7 of us there, but Paul wasn’t going to be riding with us today. On the ride today were Ashley, Mike W, Mike T, Richard, Mike B and myself. It was a lovely day for a ride, the sun was out with just a few clouds in the sky. Today’s ride was to Walkers Snacks at Bartons Mill, Mildenhall. We set off to Finchingfield for our first stop for morning coffee. We rode via Margaretting, Writtle, Leaden Roding, Great Dunmow, Great Bardfield to Finchingfield. We got to Finchingfield and found there were quite a few people here, but not the maddening crowd that you get here. I think we beat the rest getting here. You get all sorts of people coming here, cyclist, different car clubs, walkers and some old vintage cars, as seen here. We then set off for Walkers Snacks going via Haverhill, Stradishall, Newmarket to Barton Mills. Walkers Snacks is a great meeting point for bikers. As you can see it was quite busy, but people were social distancing. We have a lovely light lunch and the set off for our afternoon coffee stop at Costa Coffee at Halstead. We set off riding via Brandon, Browns Cafe roundabout, Thetford, Bury St Edmunds, Sunbury to Halstead. Mike B left us at Bury St Edmunds as he lives at Duxford. We had a nice drink at Costa and then set off on our final leg for home. People peeled off on the route which was via, Bocking, Braintree, Chelmsford and along the A12 southbound. It was a great day out in great company on good roads. Today I completed 195.4 miles door to door. Until the next time, ride safe. Roland