I’m tired; stiff and tired. Over Saturday night and into Sunday morning, I joined friends Catherine and Peter on the Dunwich Dynamo, a 120 mile night ride from Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. It was to be the longest ride any of us had cycled in one day.
We met about 300 other cyclists at 9pm by the Pub in the Park on the edge of London Fields in Hackney and set off into the evening. We were out of London surprisingly quickly and once through Epping Forest, the route took us along quiet country roads through pretty English villages. After about 35 miles the we found ourselves in a sizeable pack of riders who whisked us along at brisk pace, all the way to our half-way ‘lunchtime’ stop at 2.30am in Great Waldingfield village hall. We rested for an hour or so, recharging energy levels with spicy beans & rice and bananas, and headed back into the night.
By now the packs of riders were pretty fragmented so we did not have the luxury of a peleton in the second leg of our journey. We were joined briefly by a recumbent rider whose dynamo had failed and made use of our lights through the narrow lanes, and we chatted about the benefits of cycling in an arm chair (no sore arse for one). Every now and then a copper coloured full moon appeared and villages became less frequent. At about 4.45 the sky started to brighten but alas the cloud cover denied us a sunrise – it was still a boost though because it meant we were nearing our destination. Finally the sign we were hoping for: Dunwich 7 miles! The countryside turned sandy and barren and we knew that beach was just over the next rise. We swooped down through Dunwich village and suddenly there we were: in the car park by the beach surrounded by masses of other bikes. It was 7.15 am and time for breakfast!
The Flora tearoom by the beach had opened early especially for us (and the business that 300 hungry bikers would bring, no doubt) and served a cracking full English. The cafe was nice and warm too, which was fortunate because it was bitterly cold outside – the hot sunshine we’d been promised did not appear until 1pm, coinciding with the arrival of the coaches and a removal lorry to take the riders and our bikes back to London.
Catherine wrote:
Nice write-up, Rich!
Peter has just commented: “He’s got a good eye for composing a picture”. And I agree.
Dubster wrote:
Wow, I’m impressed :)
Found your site purely by accident from FlippleNicker.com’s links.
The Dunwich Dynamo sounded like an interestin night’s riding, strange concept admittedly, but you make it sound like a great one.
Fine lookin site you have here, is it using Cutenews or AJFork or maybe something else?
I’m also a mountain biker, down in (occasionally) lovely Kent.
Consider yourselves held captive in my bookmarks, to be looked upon at appropriate intervals :)
Take Care, have fun & stay jolly….
Dubs’
David wrote:
Thanks, Glagnut. Great pix. I arrived at the beach a bit later than you (c. 9am) – the bloke on the blue Cannondale hybrid with a yellow Hawaiian shirt and red & white helment. Have some non-scanned images, including an SP with jam jar candle nr. Wethersfield and riders going through some big oak trees just after light (kind of a spooky foggy light). Also bodies on the beach! Hope you recovered well and made it home OK.
Olivier Sels wrote:
Hi all
We did domething familiar in Belgium inspired by the Dunwich Dynamo. We cycled from Holsbeek (Leuven) to Ostend (191 km) on the friday before you guys! Pics on my website, we were only 8 but hopefully a lot more next year!
Regards
Olivier
e staines wrote:
It’s always nice to be reminded of that wonderful evening-night-morning – are you doing it this year? Hopefully some sunshine this time.