Cambridge Tour

The MetOffice forecast for this bank holiday was, as expected, cold and rain. I was thinking about cancelling the planned tour, but the horary was not bad at all:

I, as Venus, was in watery Cancer, but 3rd and 9th houses were fine. I didn’t like Moon with Rahu (undecided?) and Mars in 6th, which, besides possible health issues, indicated my 2nd (the bicycle) and could cause technical problems. But I saw how dignified Mars was and believed it could stand – I just took additional spare tube and heavy toolkit.

With this horary, I was not surprised when the initial weather forecast was later adjusted promising at least the first day of the holiday to be nice. So, I started the tour.

I first came to the far Thames wharfs where I never reached before – my usual walks ended near the Tower. This area, which was noisy and dirty in the past, now is a prestigious living district.

I reached Greenwich and saw poor Cutty Sark damaged by the recent fire

Then I passed 100-years-old foot tunnel (10 metres under the Thames)

and entered the Lea Valley, which belongs to the National Cycle Network. If you read Jerome K. Jerome’s “Three men in a boat”, where he and his friends travelled the Thames Path from London to Oxford, you should remember his stories about the river locks:

This area is so peaceful and beautiful that I forgot about time and travelled too slow, gazing at flowers

and birds

But the road itself was not joyful at all. The path was made of gravel, and at the end of the valley route, when I left the park, I realised that my back tube was punctured, and what was even worse, the vibration crashed the bearings in the back wheel, so that it was not tight and made noise.

Well, I didn’t regret I came to the park anyway. I repaired the repairable and moved on. I had to rush because in such conditions I couldn’t tour for three days and had to arrive at Cambridge by the evening to catch the last train home.

The roads leading to Cambridge are not as picturesque as in Norfolk, but still I got some nice shots, as this straw-roof house:

Road A1301 is parallel to motorway M1, so car drivers prefer the fast connection, and most of the time I was alone on this way. Finally, I came to Cambridge

and soon boarded to the train. One day, 130 km, and unforgettable Lea Valley. Yet another fulfilled dream…