Dec 7th- Bacon Butty, Neil takes A Tumble

Five bacon butty riders assembled at the Bridge Cafe more or less at 10:00.  I met the famous Toby Field, whose Strava escapades I have followed for nearly a year now.  Also in attendance were Peter Buss, Paul and Malcolm.  After a brief route discussion - "We'll go the long way" - we set of at a steady pace under grey skies and with light and reasonably warm airs from various directions...

It was my first time out on this ride and very pleasant it was too.  I saw some bits of Bexhill I've not seen before and revisited some roads perhaps better ridden in the summer!  But it was good bike handling practice and Jacob's Ladder (which most if you know as Horsewalk) gave our legs and lungs a good stretch.

On we sped and met a very spic and span elderly lady who turned out of a side road and came towards us.  Red hat, coat, lipstick and gloves, scarf flying in the breeze, sensible shoes and a cheeky 'hello boys!' greeted our polite waves.  That made us all smile.

We rattled through Herstmonceux and then entered the boggy badlands of Rickney Marshes.  Recent floods had subsided, leaving the early turns and stretches of the road covered in wet, black mud.  This gave me serious stress - I'd cleaned the bike!  Look at it now!

The stretch across the marshes is one of my favourites.  I love the simple landscape of reeds, sky, road and water-filled ditches, especially in the sun.  Pressing on, we turned towards the farm and Toby warned me about the 'bull turkey' (!) that might have a go as we went by.  I announced that my strategy would be to go faster.

And so it was that I came to the bridge, jinked left and then right, seeing a large area of brown muck covering the whole road.  'I'll warn the others' I thought, but then quickly changed my mind as I could see I would need both hands on the bars.  Instead, I decided to warn them by losing the front end and crashing.  Smack!  The bike went left and I went right, landing on my right hip and arm.  It bloody hurt.  The others gathered round and said, kindly, that they wouldn't take the piss as they hadn't seen me come off.  I was touched.

The bike was ok and I had recovered enough to carry on.  Chilley Farm provided the refreshments, gave Toby a chance to fix the puncture he got at the farm gate and gave me a chance to survey the damage.  On the bike, some scrapes to the levers.  On me, lots of that brown muck, a hole in my new coat and a sore hip were the worst of it.

You know that moment, when you could come off but hope you can retrieve it, but then you quickly find out you can't and you're going to hit the deck...  Crap isn't it?  It's going to hurt AND it could be expensive.  Thankfully, no real harm done.  Made me think I ought to refresh my first aid training.

Refuelled, we rode a bit quicker across the Pevensey Marshes and went our separate ways.  I enjoyed the chat at Chilley Farm - winter tyres and the saga of the the Normans Bay automated level crossing - and the ride.  Well, mostly!


Neil Smith