Calling the Cannockites

Stevo_666

For those of you who know the place - how far would you travel to do Cannock Chase?

A mate has a bright idea to do Cannock in a week or two, but this involves getting up at some godforsaken hour on a sunday morning and travelling from the outskirts of South East London. Must be about 130 miles each way. Is it worth a go, or should I tell him to stop being an ar$e and we can go 1 hour down the road to Surrey Hills/Bedgebury instead?

whyamihere

It's fun, but the waymarked trails can be done in a couple of hours. You need to be with a local really, to find the unmapped stuff.

El Capitano

There's a group of us from here riding there on the 10th October.

cat_with_no_tail

I travelled there from the Isle of Man....involving a ferry trip....to Liverpool :shock: .
Therefore I win and claim my 5 pounds.

Ignoring the fact I'd sponged a lift down there off Mule, and we were going past anyway on the way to BRL

I enjoyed it too. Stop being a gay and just MTFU and get on with it!

Gazlar

ditto on both points, as El Cap said theres a bunch of us riding on the 10th from about half ten/eleven. Its good fun and worth doing at some point though, why not make a night of it and take in Cannock Chase's world famous dogging scene?

bails87

gazderry wrote:

ditto on both points, as El Cap said theres a bunch of us riding on the 10th from about half ten/eleven. Its good fun and worth doing at some point though, why not make a night of it and take in Cannock Chase's world famous dogging scene?

That reminds me, I was going to sort a night ride wasn't I.....

Gazlar

bails87 wrote:

gazderry wrote:

ditto on both points, as El Cap said theres a bunch of us riding on the 10th from about half ten/eleven. Its good fun and worth doing at some point though, why not make a night of it and take in Cannock Chase's world famous dogging scene?

That reminds me, I was going to sort a night ride wasn't I.....

yup lol

bails87

gazderry wrote:

bails87 wrote:

gazderry wrote:

ditto on both points, as El Cap said theres a bunch of us riding on the 10th from about half ten/eleven. Its good fun and worth doing at some point though, why not make a night of it and take in Cannock Chase's world famous dogging scene?

That reminds me, I was going to sort a night ride wasn't I.....

yup lol

If people have got lights then I will. Or I'll try before I go away.

Gazlar

im just gonna gaffa a train emergency headlamp to my bars for now see how that goes, oh and a head torch

El Capitano

I can turn night to day (and give 3rd degree burns) with my lights.

If the timing's right, I may be up for some of this fun and frivolity.

Mrs Toast

If you park at Birches Valley just remember that the cafe will stop serving food precisely 5 minutes prior to you finishing your ride....

Thewaylander

Bugger that, From london I'd head to Wales you got the M4 you just fcruise across the bridge and have a load of sites with 40 minutes of each other rather than one option?

Just cos of the convenience of travel. Unless you ride S.Wales alot, In that case i'd do it for a change.

.blitz

Nothing to see at Cannock it's all uphill and the descents are rubbish

Anonymous

i live in kent and am planning to take the trip up to cannock in the next few weeks even though it will be a drive up, a slow pootle around then a drive back, should easily be doable in a day i would have thought.

i did ftd a while ago so am looking forward to giving it and the new stuff a go.

dissapointing thing for me is that i grew up in lichfield and spent a good few sessions of leave there without being able to or interested in riding a bike, now i like bikes i live miles away from what looks like a good day out.

same thing with rhyl, all the time i spent there on leave not many miles form some of the country's best riding and i didnt even know how to ride a bike

and the same thing with ripon when i was posted there and was right near the north yorkshire moors which i traversed on foot loads, didnt even know how to ride a bike.


good job i started riding when i moved to north essex eh.

Mrs Toast

sheepsteeth wrote:

dissapointing thing for me is that i grew up in lichfield

I can see how that'd be disappointing, but at least you were there when there was a Woolworths!

Anonymous

Mrs Toast wrote:

sheepsteeth wrote:

dissapointing thing for me is that i grew up in lichfield

I can see how that'd be disappointing, but at least you were there when there was a Woolworths!

i only noticed once i had started working away from home that lichfield is quite a nice bit of the country, has loads of good pubs and is full of hot chicks, some of whom wanted me to have a go on them but i was too much of a virgin to notice.

whats in the place of woolys now? iirc it was quite a big shop and i deffo remember it was opposite the scales which is an ace pub.

Kiblams

Ah Lichfeild... All I remember of that city was the cafe in the church, the woolys and the massive park with the spider climb and half pipe. Fond memories.

Mrs Toast

I'm not actually sure.

To be fair, I have very fond memories of Beacon Park, especially those rocking buffallo things that you could fix 6 people on.

I have slightly less fond memories of working at Tesco - should have known what I was getting myself into when they found the body of a murder victim on the day I had my interview...

I'd love to live in the Lichfield area again now though, it'd save me a drive every weekend.

mudsucker

Off to Cannock this weekend via Loughborough from Colchester. Hope to get round this time without ruining both my knees !

BorisSpencer

I'll be there on Friday, 175 mile round trip, but I consider it well worth it.

lawman

me and a few mates would deffo be up for a night ride, just ordered some lights from DX, should be here first week of october, and ill be there for the 10th too

i think the monkey would be very interesting in the drak, it's pretty good in daylight so it should be wicked at night.

bails87

It was very good fun in the dark. One of the other 2 I was with had a mechanical, so I ended up standing around in the dark, with things rustling in the bushes (Collymore?) for a few minutes while they caught up, wondering where they were! :shock:

I'm out of the country for near enough 2 months from the first week of October, so I might not get chance before I go away tbh.

Gazlar

if not mark, we shall do it when you get back, give me chance to get lights from DX to be honest too

Stevo_666

Alright, sounds like its worth me dredging myself out of bed....

@ El Cap - Ta for the offer, looks like 3rd October is our best bet but if that changes I'll let you know.
@Waylander - good idea, we've got Afan & Cwncarn on the list as well for a separate Welsh jaunt at some point.
@Gaz - dogging? Interesting, but if it's with Brummie birds I think I'll pass :P

Andy

The only real reason to go to Cannock is Go Ape

Tartanyak

Andy wrote:

The only real reason to go to Cannock is Go Ape

Oh, aren't you a little sulky boyo!

It's not a bad place, post Monkey Trail. I quite enjoy parts of it and the cafe does decent bacon.

El Capitano

Tartanyak wrote:

the cafe does decent bacon.

Indeedy:

Gazlar

i agree, bacon is good, although not as good as a llandegla burger

El Capitano

gazderry wrote:

i agree, bacon is good, although not as good as a llandegla burger

Both of which pale into insignificance when compared to Afan's Cheese on Brick & Small Bacon Sandwich:





I'm hungry now...

Gazlar

me too barsteward, might have to get mcbellas

El Capitano

I have dispatched a minion to hunt down a bacon & grated cheese baguette...