I hang out on a cycling forum called CycleChat (though admittedly spend most of my time there discussing anything but cycling). There are occasional social rides, and 'Auntie Helen' was organising a 50-mile loop starting at Manningtree.

I woke at 7.20am and it was wet. I very briefly considered the option of turning round and going back to sleep, but wet early mornings often turn into gloriously sunny days, so I dragged myself out of bed and off to the station.

Two trains and one hour later, I was at Manningtree, to find an impressive turnout for such a grey and dismal day: 22 of us.

A jobsworth at the station declared we couldn't park our bikes next to the cafe, despite them being well out of the way, on the bizarre grounds that children play there! This is on a station platform ...

The rain had stopped by the time I was sat in the cafe. It promptly started pissing down the moment we were ready to set off. Ah well, as the saying goes, there's no such thing as the wrong weather for cycling, only the wrong clothes for the weather. I had my waterproofs (including a waterproof baseball cap). The only thing I was lacking was waterproof gloves: I really must get around to buying some.

The rain was very heavy, so I didn't even get my camera out at that point, but it gradually cleared into a sort of murky grey dampness.

We had a mix of machines on the ride: a couple of trikes, a couple of tandems and some of those strange two-wheeled solo bikes:

It was cold:

But we were enjoying ourselves anyway:

The route was lovely. Almost all quiet country lanes:

Complete with the occasional bit of wildlife:

It was my kind of ride, averaging 11mph and with stops at 15-mile intervals. The first stop was at a cafe on a campsite, where Earl Grey and a teacake was consumed. The second was at a pub with decent food. Some local cyclists were admiring my trike. The verdict was "well cool".

I had garlic mushrooms on toast, followed by apple crumble - yummy! Then it was back on the road for the final leg.

The two tandems:

The CycleChat Single Pannier Police would have issued quite a few tickets!

We took a slightly longer route on the final leg to avoid some hills, so we rolled back into the station having done 49.9 miles.

People then scattered in all directions, five of us jumping on a Norwich to London train (complete with the luxury of a real guard's compartment for our bikes!). Someone had kindly baked some delicious cakes, and these were gratefully consumed.

An excellent day out. Can we please have a bit of sun for the next one?