I had to get to Theydon Bois for 11:00 for the ride, so I was a bit panicked. How to get across the river and to Straford in time? I really didn't want to ride all that way on these knobbly tyres - and I had little idea of the route, other than going via the Greenwich foot tunnel. I had ridden the tyres to Bromley on Saturday, and although they gave a nice smooth ride, they are dead slow. I had no choice though. So up and up to Greenwich. On the north side of the Thames, a sign-posted cycle route to Mile End presented itself.
I got to Mile End in about 30 minutes, it was 10:30 now, and I had hoped to get on a train at Mile End, but I realised that wasn't going to happen, as Mile End is a deep station. So I rode on to Stratford, past Bow, where my cousin lives (at least I now know how to cycle there now).
At Stratford, they let me in, and I got on the platform, just as the Epping train was leaving. And that was that. The next train was 11 minutes later and I got to Theydon at about 11:15. But the ride was actually starting a fair way up the road, up a hill, so I actually got there about 11:25, by which time they all had gone.
So, I thought I'd best see what I could do. I cycled on from the car park down a track. I saw some other bikers and they weren't on the track, they were in the woodland. I thought I should look for a map and found one, next to a "No Mountain Biking" sign. It seemed I was heading north, while, if I went south I could go down the park to rejoin the tube for home at Loughton. Across the road was another map.
I was at a place called The Ditches (according to the photo above, but I thought I was on Jack's Hill). Anyway the map seemed to point either to another main track, or to a little track straight into the forest. I was passed by more bikers, who took the little track. I followed, and well, I was able to follow for about 1 minute before they disappeared into the distance. I tried to follow their tracks, but those evaporated soon too. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, I was going lower and lower and came upon a little dip. It looked a bit boggy, but there were tyre tracks so on I went, in 1st gear, braking, braking and whoops!
I fell. I managed to get a foot down, but it went into the mud above my ankle. This unbalanced me and I fell over, still on the bike. The smell was mud, decomposing plants and manure. Great. I got up and tried to get out. I was lost, and I didn't even know where I wanted to go! I had a compass, so I tried to head south-east, not easy when all the tracks are twisty. I heard voices and saw tents. I was passing a campsite in a field, a nice place to camp with a view of a hill, but not really helpful in finding the way out and that path was a dead end (indicated by tree trunk across the track).
Back I went and this time up a step escarpment and I couldn't pedal anymore! So I walked up and eventually found another cycle track and that took me to a main track, which was paved with lots of little rocks. Down down down and all of a sudden, in a little road and people's front gardens and a main road. It was now about 12:20pm. I gave Russ a call to ask if he could use Streetmap to help find the way, but the signal was too bad, so I just cycled on and lo! I was back in Theydon Bois.
I got the tube back to Stratford and cycled as far as a about 1-km south of Mile End before noticing my rear tyre going down. Yes another puncture. That makes, what, three for the week? Now what? Well I had to walk with the bike all the way back to Stratford to get a train to Liverpool Street (I was able to listen to music on the SLVR though to pass the time), and then walk through the city to London Bridge (getting slightly lost on the way) for a train to Hither Green. I got back home at 16:00. 4 hours to get home. Shoes, socks and the rest all in the washing machine.
Urgh, what a day.
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