Well, I was expecting to be sitting on my own waiting for no one yesterday. I had received several messages throughout the day from folks saying the wind and possible rain was sending them straight home. The wind at London Bridge was pretty wild. My helmet was blown off my head as I unclipped it and retrieved by a kindly passer by.
However, there are some hardy folks among us Londoners and eventually two of of us took off over Tower Bridge to be joined by another at St Katherine’s Dock. We trundled along the cobbles, zig zagged down the ornamental canal, mused upon the fact I and my daughter had survived several years of canoeing with associated dunkings in Shadwell Basin and not yet succumbed to some deadly water borne disease, and then battled the massive gusts that occasionally sprang up along the river. But most of the time we had the wind behind us as we were generally heading east. It’s just the twists and turns of the Thames, coupled with the tunnelling effects of certain road layouts and architectural features that occasionally delivers powerful draughts rendering your bike stationary.
As we approached Island Gardens, a large battleship hove into view. Whilst I am not usually a fan of such things, I had to admit it was pretty impressive. Lots of people lined up to attention. Helicopters everywhere. We had already seen helicopters flying in formation, seemingly escorting a biplane around, and wondered what was going on. Apparently it was this
Through the tunnel to Greenwich, up that hill in the park, across Blackheath where we almost joined a solitary kite in the clouds, as the wind whipped over and around us. Then down across the DLR bridge and onto the Waterlink Way for a bit to begin a little tour of some of Lewisham and Southwark’s best quiet cycling infrastructure. Finally we had a peek at the new cycling and pedestrian bridge over Rotherhithe New Rd. Nice bridge, shame it goes nowhere much at the moment, even though sorting this is easy, obvious and cheap. Lewisham and Southwark Cyclists trying to sort this as we speak.
Then some squirrelling through Rotherhithe and finally to the Angel. We found a cosy corner in the upstairs lounge, which must have some of the best views of the Thames in London, al beautiful and sparkly in the dark, and enjoyed a quiet drink before taking our separate ways home, myself and one other blown dramatically down Jamaica Rd at speed. Then, I had to turn off and head westwards into the wind. The last two miles felt like riding through treacle.
So glad two turned up to join me, I may well have just gone straight home otherwise. Loved it.
