2013-07-28 - Let's go wild swimming - Dedham Vale

Sad you had to miss this hoefla, esp as the weather's fine. Hope you're not too shaken or hurt by your fall.

Hope you all have a lovely day, take care out there.

I'll be in Tring Museum.

yeah I'm sad too, but I feel all achey today and slightly sorry for myself. taking it easy...
hope everyone's doing well out there.

all tired and sleepy on train back from Manningfield. great day out, cheerz ktb

write-up later/tomorrow
#tiredbunny

Thanks all for making that a lovely ride, and a million thank yous to Fox who came up trumps with an even better route than last year, but couldn't be there to enjoy it. Might

Thanks for today Katy, really enjoyed the whole thing, now happily knackered and refreshing myself to a high degree. Looking forward to the next one.

Thanks for a great ride Katy, and thanks to Fox also.. don't think i've been on a route that's so pretty.
great weather, good company, the right wind direction and not freezing water! really awesome day.. will post some pictures soon =)

write-up later/tomorrow

will post some pictures soon =)

looking forward to these; was in the region, so would have checked out the expectedly joyful swimming scene (!) if a little closer to Dedham!

Zzz

ah lovely photos!

Gutted to miss this, looks fantastic. More swimming soon!!

looks great :(

super!!

The most idyllic forum ride so far! Empty country roads with continental scenery and swimming in reasonable temperature river water...
Thanks KT Bee for organizing and navigation~

Thanks KT Bee for a lovely ride, a brilliant route with great company. Nice to meet everyone!

Cheers, Will

It was a great day indeed. As others have said, the weather wasn't bad at all, with the wind behind us most of the time and pleanty of sunshine. The route broadly follows the DD route but vears off east somewhere after Sibil H. There is also and amended bit just before Epping which was rather nice - following some of the lanes I last went down on the London Phoenix Easter Sportive - though a lot warmer!

The pace was quite brisk really, though we all seemed to keep up. Katy does like to attack the hills, so some of us struggled a bit going up*, but the pace was a little easier on the flat.

Don't know quite what I expected at the end of the ride, though it definitely wasn't a little off-road section, but this turned out to be quite navigable, even for me with my new heavy back end (of the bike - not my arse).

Felt great after the swim, all fresh and clean. Then we had some grub and a bottle or two of river-chilled beer.

Highlights:
weather and wind direction
nice company
lovely bit of river swimming
horses playing blind man's buff

Lowlights:
Chap (sorry can't remember your name) borrowing a tube off me at the start, and then breaking a skewer, so having to bail!
Not leaving enough time to get to the station (ended up all hot and sweaty after a 3-mile dash)

*spencerwells not included in this. I don't think he actually noticed any hills at all.

oh, spencerwells, pls pm me your paypal account so that i can pay you back for our rail tickets and food. thanks~

I am so disappointed that I couldn't make this: it looks ace.

Post-ride recovery strategy straight from the pros (well Skully and Absurd Bird).

The pace was quite brisk really, though we all seemed to keep up.

You all looked fine to me!

Not leaving enough time to get to the station (ended up all hot and sweaty after a 3-mile dash)

Yeah - that's happened every time ...

What I started to type the other night, before I fell asleep mid-posting, was that I might do a ride out to the Wey (either Godalming or Guildford), perhaps as a slackers ride next Monday or Tuesday. http://wildswim.com/river-wey-nr-guildford

Great ride, thanks KT Bee!

Helped me freshen up my cyclist tan. By the way, how are the two tan lines on your forehead spencerwells?

only just found this thread. Gutted. I am yet to actually partake in any forum rides, so have barely met anyone face to face, and wild swimming is a massive hobby of mine so would have been perfect! will keep an eye out for the next one!

If you fancy a shorter ride, Port Meadow in Oxford is spectacular at the moment. At least a km of lovely river, just jumped in there for a brief cool-down after riding to London (I took the train back, dumped my bike at the gf's and then ran to jump in the water).

I'd love to join you guys if there's another one in the pipeline, sounds like it was awesome and the pics are great :)

Not going to be doing one next week - my cycling Paris to plans have been signficantly altered /extended (we, um, forgot to book a ferry, and there aren't any places when we were planning to go - ah well).

I was thinking maybe 1 September - very open to doing a different route - apparently there is quite good river swimming near Guildford, or we could head back to somewhere in Thames Valley.

Glad you had fun on this Wildsiders.

We need a proper club name and more regular rides, so the stress of shit weather will be less.

The Erect Nipple Cycling Club? TEN CC...

or how about The Wet Chamois Rollers

All these suggestions are a bit suggestive. Sorry.

Wild Style CC. Or something.

Glad the river-cooling beers in a bag trick got passed onto the next ride. And the beer & pork pie teatime snack of champions.

'Oh look, it's the CTC!'