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Tuesday, 22-July-2008
I did the Dunwich Dynamo over the weekend and I saw the moon!
This year it didn't rain; after the bad weather of 2006 and the plain awful continuous downpour of 2007, it was something of a shock. I started at 20:45 and saw the moonrise a little after 22:00 when the disc cleared a cloud bank on the horizon. As this year was fine it was no surprise to see the jam-jars out and lit. 
In fact the elusive lighter, a woman on a recumbent, succumbed to one of my few snaps (with a mobile). However, despite her standing under a streetlamp, she's dark, wearing dark and in the dark, she remains elusive. At an early stop, someone thought my front light sufficiently artistic – you can judge for yourself – there are quite a lot of photos on the Flickr tag
I did the ride in a few minutes over nine hours of cycling at an average of 13.1 mph, arriving at Dunwich at 06:28 Sunday. I'm getting a little faster each time but nothing like as fast as my companions who, though they stopped less than I did (about 45 mins all told), were well over an hour quicker. The ride was lengthened this year for a different midway stop and they reckon it was 119 miles. I recorded almost exactly that but that counted mine to Ipswich station (1.5) and Liverpool Street to the start (about 2.75) so I think my counter lost some on the way.
This year was more like the early hours of 2006 when we were greeted by curious people, including examples of "Dulwich? You're going the wrong way". Somewhere in dark Suffolk a woman urged us all up a hill, a car-full thinking it was a race yelled that I was in front by miles (the guy I'd been following punctured) and a puzzled drunk bewilderedly repeated "are you going to Dunwich too??" as each of us passed.
My only slight mishap was that my saddlebag opened. Alerted to this by my pump falling out, I discovered my long-sleeved jersey missing. I cycled back about 400 yards only finding a dead rat in the road. I asked a group who had stopped for respite and they'd seen nothing so I decided to give up on it. I'd made about two pedal turns when one of they called out that he'd just seen it in some car headlights about 10 yards further on. I decided wearing it would be safer and warmer. That about sums up the night – everyone looks out for everyone else.
