People's Chilterns Winter Bivvy Front of Judea

[TheBrownDog]

Anyone else unable to make the Midlands-Chilterns mash up on the Long Mynd feel like a more local bimble on 15 December?

For the sake of tradition, I think we might follow a similar route to previous years, starting in Berko around 1pm, afternoon tea at the Cafe in the Woods at Wendover, dinner at a less poncey pub that last year and kipping once again in Sam's field near Little Kimble.

Show of hands?

[Dr Nick]

Shows hand! Me please guv!
Hoping a bimble is a social pace.

[TheBrownDog]

Yah Dr Nick!!

A bimble is most certainly a social pace. If I'm not able to carry on a conversation while riding, I figure I'm going too fast.

bimble
/ˈbɪmb(ə)l/Submit
INFORMAL•BRITISH
verb
1.
walk or travel at a leisurely pace.
"on Sunday we bimbled around Spitalfields and Brick Lane"
noun
1.
a leisurely walk or journey.
"we were enjoying a pleasant bimble over the rocks"

[Dr Nick]

FAB! Sounds like a plan to me.

[BigdummySteve]

[RIP]

Technically we're the splitters Steve . Although admittedly in this case the splitters group seems much bigger than the split-off-from group!

[TheBrownDog]

Reg is, of course, quite right. We, the riders of the People's Chilterns Winter Bivvy Front of Judea, are the true keepers of the faith. As for the numbers, me and Dr Nick are just the starting point. Sam and our mate Adam will be there provided they can find their bikes, and I'm quietly confident we'll have a few more locals off here join too. Must message Nige. Will be a fun night, whoever comes along. But, frankly, I'd far rather be bombing around the Long Mynd in a proper winter, than churning through axle deep mud in the Chilterns.

[BigdummySteve]

Technically we're the splitters Steve . Although admittedly in this case the splitters group seems much bigger than the split-off-from group!

Oh you might be right.... I’m having an existential crisis now.

[RIP]

No you're cool Steve - just wasted 4 seconds of my life looking up your post count (888) and this waffle came up: "The triple number 888 is one that's seen as positive and progressive. If you've been seeing this number a lot lately, prepare for a world of abundance and opportunities coming your way in a short while. ... The number 888 is all about positive changes". Blimey!

EDIT: It seems 1606 "is a message to let go and release any material concerns or worries and focus on your true desires & passions". An uncannily accurate description of my BaMs! Or, possibly, complete mumbo-jumbo.

[BigdummySteve]

888? Funny you should say that, I’m waiting for a phone call today to discuss terms for a new job working at pinewood Studios, looks like it may be a decent offer.

On the yang side of the equation im typing this while waiting for the AA due to a snapped AUX belt.

[BigdummySteve]

Oops it’s 889 now

[Pickers]

On the yang side of the equation im typing this while waiting for the AA due to a snapped AUX belt.

Oh bugger! Is that the one you were going to change a couple of weeks ago but thought it would be better to drag my sorry arse out BaMing...?

[BigdummySteve]

Aye, luckily it didn’t take anything else with it. A right pain of a job to do. I changed the crankshaft pulley, tensioner and idler pulleys as well. Roughly 1” clearance down the side of the engine so had to pull the engine mounts out and jack the engine up just to get a ground down Allen key in VERY sweary job, sounds nice and quite on tick over now

[TheBrownDog]

Now Pickers and Steve have finished their conversation, posting again to bump this.

We need more subscribers.

Come on you lot. Must be some out there. It'll be way fun. Promise.

[TheBrownDog]

Bump. And last call for joiners/splitters before I book the pub for dinner.

[TheBrownDog]

Well, that didn't exactly go as expected.

I drove over to Tring to meet Dr Nick at the station as planned. He was slightly delayed by a 20mph headwind along the canal from Aylesbury, so we set off just under an hour behind schedule, heading for Wendover and the Cafe in the Woods. It was very windy, steady rain and cold. Not desperately cold, just cold.

All went well for an hour or so, despite my Garmin turning itself off at random moments, and we only really made one navigational error before getting to the cafe around 3.30pm.



Annoyingly, while we were getting warm and dry inside, outside the light had well and truly gone and the weather took a big turn for the worse. But fortified by tea and cake, we buckled up and set forth into the teeth of the storm. Well, almost. There was a slight delay for Nick to fix his flat front tyre. Not a quick job with 4.8in rubber on his lovely Cannondale fat bike, but we were on our way soon enough.

Away we went, down past the Gruffalo and along the main trail. A mile later, my satnav misbehaved again and we went off piste for a bit, ending up at the bottom of a very grim climb. The rain was heavy now, and the road like a stream, with sheets of water ripping down, filling our boots and generally making this bikepacking thing less than fun.

Eventually it levelled out and we were back on track. And here we had a decision to make. It was now 5pm and our table was booked for 630, which we were not going to make. Do we continue on with another 15 or so miles of Chilterns muck and freezing rain, or maybe we might just consider the possibility of tucking our tales in and head back to the start?

No brainer. 30 minutes later we were back at Tring Station, loading the bikes into my car. Another 30 minutes and we were at the pub in Askett, sat at a table in the warm, dry, cosy bar. The temp gauge on the car had shown -2deg but stepping out the gale in our damp clothes, it felt much colder.

For a posh(ish) pub, a few of the locals had a certain "Deliverance" quality to them (duelling banjos anyone?) though the achingly lovely waitress was more than compensation for their loud voices and rather stern views on immigration, whether you should feed a dog Twiglets and the current East Enders storyline. Thankfully they eventually left, the food came, the conversation flowed and we put the world to rights.



After we'd eaten waaay too much we headed over to Sam's field. When we arrived, we found the roundhouse already warm with a fire in the stove and a couple of paraffin lamps making it very welcoming indeed. Thank you Sam, you are a proper gentleman.



The evening passed uneventfully and the weather improved as the night wore on. We were up early, I dropped Nick home and am now on my sofa, very pleased to have made the decision to bale. I can do Type 2 fun, but last night was most definitely Type 3, and I know when I'm beat.

Thanks Nick, as always, for great company. See you in 2019. Trusting everyone else who was out and about in no doubt worse conditions than we had, got through it safe and well.

[RIP]

Excellent job there men! The point is You Were There. Hats off to your insanity.