Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Wingham, Preston, Stodmarsh, Fordwich, Wickhambreaux: 20 miles
Ruth was waiting in sunny Wigham for John, Juliette, Peter and Judith and after the pumping-up-tyres-and-doing-things-to-bikes routines the tour set off for Preston. Here, the shop had a rest stop for bikes - very useful. Next, a picture taking stop at Stodmarsh church gave the impression that this was a quiet village, until a puzzling scene at the Red Lion involving a policeman, a character who may have been the landlord, several other members of the cast and five cyclist 'extras' reinacted a mystery play. Such a mystery that we could not understand it - perhaps it was written by Chekhov - but the message relating to the murder of the landlord may have been completely irrelevant.
A quick trip down the track to spend a few minutes in the hide at the Stodmarsh Bird Reserve was disappointing as the birds were all, sensibly, over the far side of the lake, though the leader thought he saw two fish eagles in the distance.
Fordwich was the next stop on the tour. Beautiful buildings, a beautiful church, but no plays here.
We sped back to Wickhambreaux, through the first shower of rain, to an excellent lunch (John awarded it top marks). Robert eventually joined the diners after an extended journey trying to find the Red Lion that Peter had given as the pub's name, which made things somewhat difficult as it was in fact called the Rose Inn.
Finally the tour left to return to Wingham, but as the map was upside down, returned to Preston instead! But it was fun retracing the road back to the car park, and arriving just in time for a heavy shower. Nobody minded!
- comments