Dunwich Revisited
Posted on Sunday 25 July 2010 by Martin Hayman
Dunwich Dynamo, the midsummer overnight jaunt from Hackney to the Suffolk coast, has been extensively blogged, including in these pages. So it is at Jon ‘Routemaster’ McColl’s request that I write this, a posting of record rather than the customary extravagant whimsy.
Jon’s circular to the usual suspects prompted a mere 5 to show at London Fields, 2 of whom, Keith (injury) and our secretary Stephen (‘otherwise engaged’) were the send-off committee, leaving only Naomi, Jon and me to ride the course. We set out at 8 sharp and Jon’s familiar escape from East London route got us clear of the enormous crowd of riders, on a warm but overcast evening.
The long drag through Epping Forest saw Suffolk-bound riders lined out as far as the eye could see. For the most part car drivers left us alone, though the we did note a Lamborghini driver nailing it. But that’s Saturday night out in Epping for you.
Our planned picnic stop was at the same place as last year, a broad sward (dry and straw-like this year) overlooking the turn at Great Dunmow. Here we hollered out to alert scores, possibly even hundreds of passing riders to make this key right turn rather than forge on northwards towards Saffron Walden.
It was a pity we did not have such an angel ourselves when we made our turn on to a lane stated by the route sheet to be ‘well-concealed’ – we made the elementary blunder of assuming that other people knew where they were going. The lane turned quickly into a narrow, tree-roofed tunnel and our companions, keen but I thought inexperienced, altogether too enthusiastic about slamming it on the invisible, gravelly surface.
Jon called the group to order and a route conference by his map soon put us back in the right direction for the halfway food stop in Castle Hedingham. This was a new location and already very busy when we got there. Most of the Dulwich Paragon seemed to have turned out (including our sometime member Richard Ireland) and there was also a big group of Horsham Wheelers. We had eaten recently, so passed on food and headed for the Suffolk border at Sudbury.
One of the curiosities of the Dynamo is that all of a sudden you can find yourself in the midst of a large, or very large group, swarmed around by club boys, sportive riders, fixie fashionistas, and old-school Audaxers. Then just as soon, you have the road completely to yourself again; it is as if they were never there. So it was after Stowmarket when we turned on to the eastbound A1120 and found there were just 3 of us, plus a random recumbent guy who obviously didn’t do groups.
It was wasn’t quite so dark now. We rolled along this well-surfaced, rolling road, normally heavily trafficked but now empty, for some 20 km, at a pleasing allure, arriving in Yoxford around 4.30 and within easy striking distance of our destination. There was the usual hectic rush for the line across Dunwich Heath (I speak for myself) and, as the first one in at just past 5, I was obliged to stake out our place in the already-long queue at the café.
Here to our surprise we found Chris, who told us he had infiltrated the Paragons and arrived the best part of an hour before us. As a veteran 400-km Audaxer, Chris was all set to ride back to London; sensibly he decided to do the companionable thing and join us for the 50-km hack back to Ipswich for the Liverpool Street train. Our augmented party was back in town before 11, after another very entertaining night out on the bike.