Day 3 – through Central London to Brockley

First up, an apology – the wifi is AWFUL in this B&B so I can’t upload a the ride GPS or the video yet – hopefully tomorrow.

Today wasn’t a huge ride – just 36 miles – but it was on a lot of towpath again (about half the ride, perhaps a bit more), and ended up weaving through central London.

Rich and I got up at five because we are idiots, twiddled around on the internet, and he skyped his wife and kids, and then we went for a lovely breakfast. I loaded up on toast and fried bread because I figure I need the calories for a change.

We set off around half nine after doing some more puncture repair – just on the punctured tubes we had left over, so we have more spares for later. The first 7 miles was towpath again, all pretty nice, and then we came out into Casiobury Park and the outskirts of Harro, wound through a mixture of countryside and town bits until we hit another canal, which we’d be on for quite a long time. About 2/3 of the way along that we stopped at a really nice pub and had lunch – I sank my traditional lemonade and sambuca – and then we were off again.

The buildings got bigger and more citylike as we rubbed up against the Westway, and then once we dove under it it was clear we were really in the center – from that point it was all a bit LONDON but then we emerged into Hyde Park and it was lovely – at that point the radio rang me up again so I sat by the Serpentine and talked to them. The show’s not online yet so I can’t youtube it.

After that we were back into the thick of the traffic – one glorious stretch over Vauxhall Bridge past the MI6 headquarters, and then a stretch of easy city road down to Lewisham – Brockley specifically, where our B&B is.

Patrick, and old friend of Andy’s and mine, was kind enough to pop into the pub and book a table for us, and we met him and his wonderful little girls there for a meal and a few drinks, and got back to the B&B about half nine.

Condition-wise, everyone’s good – Andy’s knee is feeling a lot better, I’m coping well, and Rich is fine because his body actually functions as it should. Things are going well.

Tomorrow, the heady charms of East Grinstead!