25 miles there, 25 miles back ...

A few months ago, my son's mum asked me to accompany my son and a bunch of his school friends on a trip. I said: “HELL YEAH!” and let the school know I’d be tagging along, to which they asked that I supply a copy of a current CRB (Criminal Records Bureau – form) for them to photocopy.

Because I’ve been doing a range of community work as well as basketball coaching in various areas across London I have about three or four CRBs, so I shuffled through them all and found the most up-to-date copy, got that to the school which meant shrugging off work early one day.

The confirmation letter went to my ex’s house with an attached covering note on what to expect from the trip.

Turns out we were riding 25 miles to a location, sleeping there and then riding the 25 miles back. Erm ... SHIT-SNACKS! 

Okay, surprise aside, I needed to get my bike out the cupboard underneath a mountain of junk and give it a good service. The main things were the brakes and chain as well as all the dirt, grime and dust – this was a job for some Muc-Off!

Fast-forward a few more weeks and the trip is upon us. The previous day I bought my son a new bike and didn’t tell him. Went to his house, knocked the door and casually gave it to him. He thought it was my bike (a newer one) and if I could have taken a picture of his face when he realised it was his I would have posted it at the top of this blog. For now, you’ll have to imagine an 11yr old kid with a look on his face like Christmas has been sanctioned to happen three times in six days!

The journey up to the centre was taken via canals, toe paths, and some of the most picturesque places between south east and east London. It was a beautiful Friday morning, afternoon and evening. Every so often we’d stop restock water reserves and get a history lesson on a specific area from the leader of our group who was a teacher at the kid’s school. In total, eleven kids and four adults took on the challenge and by the time we all got to the end destination, our butts were sore. Mental note: buy a new saddle!

 

I completely forgot to sign up to the ‘Indie Ink’ because I was unashamedly too excited to be riding my bike so far after such a long gap of doing not much exercise, so I’ll have to jump on the ‘challenge’ next week I guess.

Below are some of the pictures taken on the way up and back from Lee Valley YMCA:

Master Jeffrey pondering the 20 miles left to ride ...

 

 

Somewhere on the Greenwich Peninsular.

My beautiful mule.

The helmet was meant to be there!

Making friends on the dusty roads.

I'm the geek that recorded this chopper taking off.

A 'must go' venue!