The first thing to say is that three riders was exactly two more than I expected given the forecast for the day. The ladies from THCC decided (very sensibly) to cancel and had let me know so I knew that they wouldn't be around. Tonia had offered to be backmarker and was already part way to Tower Hamlets from Beckton when I called to say that she didn't need to come along, so we decided that as at least one of us needed to turn up at the advertised Upminster meeting point, we would take the train there and cycle to Rainham Marshes anyway "for tea and cakes". 

Much to our surprise there was someone waiting at Upminster - a newcomer to Wheelers' rides. So on went our trio and to start with there wasn't too much water about. However about a mile down the Ingrebourne Valley trail we found lots of it - beneath our wheels. The path was severely flooded, apparently up to knee depth at one point according to a rather muddy and wet looking mountain biker. We didn't really fancy that so diverted to the roads for a short distance and rejoined the trail further on. It was then that we found more water - this time falling from the sky, so the forecast was proving accurate. Waterproofs on, we continued towards Rainham Village exchanging those "we must all be mad" looks with our fellow travellers on foot and bikes. From Rainham we cycled on the shared use pavement to join the cycle paths across the marshes and along the riverside to bring us to the RSPB centre and a welcome bowl of soup (and sausage roll and tea and cake).

We didn't make it back to Upminster but I think we all enjoyed the ride in that odd defying the weather way.  However we will try to re-schedule again as it's too good a ride just to keep to ourselves, so look out for another date in late August or September.