Lovely to be out cycling with with my friends again. Early start for me to meet them at 9.30 am at Pembury, just like it used to be. We spilt into two groups for safe distancing. Well probably more that is was fast and slow riders. Needless to say I rode with Les and Mike, who are now advanced octogenarians, to make me feel young. However, Les has obviously spent his entire lockdown on the turbo machine and rode like the wind. With his tie neatly arranged and his side pannier held on with a bungee strip, he kept up a challenging pace. No direct route back to Staplehurst for him. No, once again we were off down a lane I am sure I have never ridden before. It was a lovely ride. Arriving at Frankies, we joined the fast group sitting on the grass in the “safe” garden. After some confusion over wrong orders of cake and coffee we settled down in a circle to put the world to rights.
Having only 3 miles to go home I decided I needed a few more miles so I rode a bit further with the boys and then left them near Chainhurst. I eventually caught up with a young lady cycling in the same direction as me and as I overtook and passed a pleasant greeting she started telling about her lockdown life and how she needs to get out for some fresh air. We stopped at the Hunton Hill junction and she continued talking. I heard about her sister who swam the channel and how she is having to spray the inside of her car with virus killer as she is a driving instructor. Then off she went to meet her sister at Teapot Island cafe which is now apparently open with chairs and tables outside. I might take Sue there on our next bike ride. That won’t be for a while as James and Alex arrive on Saturday for a couple of nights stopover before we take them to join their parents at Camber Sands. That will be fun. We have booked an hour on kayaks at Northiam on Sunday, now that will be fun!
When I arrived home I decided to do a short run. Big mistake it was pitiful. legs like lead and 3.1 miles took me 40 minutes! A treated myself to a long soak in the bath, very nice.
All in all a lovely day!
