{"id":12429,"date":"2014-06-28T17:04:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T21:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=12429"},"modified":"2014-07-04T14:00:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T18:00:13","slug":"day-1-saturday-may-28-london-to-harlow-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=12429","title":{"rendered":"Day 1. Saturday, June 28 – London to Harlow, England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, after hours of deliberation (head northeast or southwest) and contingency plans for rain, we decided to wake up and figure it out. \u00a0The morning was crisp, but sunny! \u00a0So we downed a\u00a0cup of coffee and toast, packed up the bikes and decided to get a jump on the promised torrential rains.\"DSCN7310\"<\/a>\u00a0Thankfully, Morgan was not tired of us (yet) and led\u00a0us\u00a0out of town. \u00a0Or maybe he wanted to make sure<\/strong><\/em> we were far enough away that we would not return. \u00a0Whichever, we were happy to have his London navigational skills.<\/p>\n

The Saturday morning streets were bustling with cars and shoppers taking advantage of the roadside markets. \"DSCN7316\"<\/a>\u00a0It took us about an hour to find our tow path, \"DSCN7322\"<\/a>leaving the busy city streets behind. \u00a0Riding along the canal with the occasional lock \"DSCN7324\"<\/a>reminded us of so many of our other enjoyable tours. \u00a0We enjoyed an hour of quiet countryside while keeping our eye on the dark clouds quickly building behind us.\"DSCN7340\"<\/a>We had a wonderful chat with Davi<\/a>d,\"IMG_0066\"<\/a> who was keeping a close eye (that he shared with us through his lens) of baby falcons. \u00a0It was not long after we lost our beautiful tow path, \"DSCN7331\"<\/a>that we lost our way. \u00a0Our progress slowed dramatically when we found ourselves deep in the countryside on well used tractor paths.\"photo\"<\/a>\u00a0The ruts became so deep\u00a0we were concerned we were going to loose our duckies……<\/p>\n

\"DSCN7343\"<\/a>then the rain hit and we slowed to a crawl; mud caked so thick to the bakes of our mud guards our wheels would not turn. \u00a0Not sure how long it took us to emerge to hard packed dirt then pavement, but while the road surface improved the weather did not; but forward progress was once again being made. \u00a0The 75\u00b0 temps we had reached in the sunshine had dropped to 54\u00b0. \u00a0Ten miles down the road, as we reached the outskirts\u00a0of Harlow the rain began to slow. \u00a0We biked into town and said our good-byes to Morgan who still needed to bike back to London. \u00a0We took a break for lunch and<\/em> to figure out where to go from here, as the rain began to fall, again. \u00a0Cold, wet and feeling a bit defeated having only biked 31 miles, we decided to find a hotel, regroup and put some miles in tomorrow. \u00a0Our spirits were lifted after dinner when we happened upon hundreds of people getting ready for a midnight walk\/run. \u00a0They partied and danced\"DSCN7352\"<\/a><\/p>\n

to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. \u00a0Frank Sinatara’s New York, New York<\/em> serenaded us as we strolled back to our hotel\u00a0with a smile on our faces.<\/p>\n\n\t\t