Night ride from Hackney to Hertfordshire in defiance of muggers
Night riders: expedition participants planning the trip before setting off from the Proud Archivist in De Beauvoir.
Intrepid cyclists pedalled from Hackney to Hertfordshire by moonlight in defiance of muggers – after reading an article in the Hackney Citizen about criminals targeting canal towpath users.
Madoc Threipland, who runs social travel start-up business Secret Adventurers, organised the 20 mile nocturnal ride from The Proud Archivist in De Beauvoir to the Fish and Eels pub in Hoddesdon near Broxbourne and more than 10 riders took part.
Mr Threipland said the ride late last month was “a mission to encourage residents to make use of the pleasures their towpath backyard holds and claim a greater presence and ownership of the canal and the River Lee, and the article kickstarted the idea.”
The article in February’s Hackney Citizen was entitled ‘Beef up safety on canal after spate of muggings’, say Hackney Wick residents’ attempts to get police to do more to crack down on crime on the towpath.
“Canals and the river don’t have to be associated with dark and gloomy things at night – by running a night time group cycle we will open it up as a fun rather than a scary place,” Mr Threipland said prior to the ride.
He added: “The more people use it, the safer people will feel using it, especially in the evening – you can access the countryside so easily and go to country pubs within a couple of hours ride after work – it’s an unknown backwater really for a lot of people.”
He added: “There’s an eerie charm to the towpath at night. The towpath gives a lot of people a lot of pleasure as an off-grid London artery.”
Mr Threipland is a seasoned adventurer who has in the past organised ‘wild swimming’ expeditions to islands in the River Thames, night kayaks on London’s river and ‘wild camping’ trips.
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