Day 6, Friday 21 June

Outwell to Hethel

Leaving The Crown Lodge Hotel

Denver Windmill

A good night’s sleep, a hearty breakfast and a donation from the hotel set us up for a good day’s ride of just under 50 miles in warm sunshine. We continued through fenland until we crossed the River Great Ouse and the Great Ouse Relief Channel and rode into Downham Market with its distinctive town clock. We could have stopped for elevenses there but were drawn on by the prospect of the historic Denver Windmill on the other side. We met Ceri, enjoyed coffee and cake in the sunshine and collected another donation.

I was feeling good after a solid rest the previous evening as we followed the valley of the River Wissey through West Dereham, Stoke Ferry, heading for Cockley Cley where we were hoping to have lunch at the wonderfully named Twenty Churchwardens pub. Approaching Oxborough and at this point leading at a steady if not furious pace of between 12 and 15 mph I crashed as Tom, having been for a comfort break came hurtling passed and cut in front of me catching my front wheel with his pannier and sending me crashing and groaning onto the road. Huw directly behind me couldn’t stop in time and ran over my rear wheel knocking it out of true before he fell onto the grassy bank, fortunately without hurting himself. However, I was not so lucky, leaving yards of skin from my right knee behind on the road and gashing my right elbow with added grit. Although my head had not hit the ground I was in shock, to the point of not being able to pick myself up, and had to lifted onto the side of the road.

As the team was busying themselves with their unlucky companion a couple of off-duty paramedics pulled up and came to see if they could help. Their advice was to ferry me to the A&E unit at King’s Lynn hospital, so Vladimir contacted Ceri who fortunately had just returned to their car from a morning walk. Half an hour later she found us and my bicycle was loaded into their car for the second time and she drove me to King’s Lynn, with me holding onto a swab from our roadside medical kit to prevent me bleeding all over their nice clean car.

After Ceri had driven me away Tom suffered his first puncture on a flinty track. He borrowed Huw’s inner tube at this point having failed to repair the tubeless tyre. He couldn’t get the tyre seated properly but they rode to a bicycle shop just before Hethel to have a new tyre fitted by a professional and purchased a replacement inner tube.

At King’s Lynn I was identified (a bit scary to realise that from a name and a date of birth they can find your records) and registered, put into a wheel chair, given some absorbent tissues to quench the blood and wheeled to a non-emergency waiting area for about three hours. Having been assessed by a doctor a nurse then gave me a couple of codeine, picked the grit out of my elbow and bandaged my wounds. They wheeled me to the x-ray department to ensure that no bones were broken, where I had a good humoured chat to some of my fellow patients. Ceri had been left on her own while I was being bandaged up and x-rayed and was asked by a passing doctor if she was all right, having been in the waiting area for quite a long time, which she found amusing. She then drove us to our hotel in Hethel to meet up with the rest of the team.

That evening Vladimir and Ceri drove us to a restaurant sporting lots of Lotus cars memorabilia, their headquarters being a stone’s throw away.