Friday, April 15, 2011

B Group April 13th

There was a good turnout of B Group riders at Molesey and with a couple from A Group to make up numbers, twenty of us set off for the lunch stop at The New Inn, Cartbridge. Heading down to the river, the first stretch was along the towpath to Weybridge where we turned inland to Addlestone and followed the New Haw road to the New Haw Lock on the Wey Navigation. Joining the towpath, we followed the Wey, then transferred to the Basingstoke Canal before coming off at the first bridge and headed into West Byfleet. While waiting at the lights to cross on to the Pyrford Road, we found ourselves facing Dave's jeweller's shop which he had pointed out to us from a sideways angle last week. No time to stop on this trip, Dave, but we certainly know where it is for future reference! To add something new to the ride, we turned at Floyd's Lane and joined the bridleway, Sandy Lane, which cut across country to Pyrford Village. From here it was easy cycling to Newark, along Papercourt Lane to Send and a short downhill run to The New Inn. Seats had been reserved for us inside and given the chilly wind and only spasmodic sunshine, it turned out to be a sensible move. With twenty hungry cyclists to feed, they did an amazing job in bringing out the food very speedily.

With the morning's route being relatively flat, a few hills were thrown in for the return route to the tea stop at Shoots Garden Centre in Stoke D'Abernon, the first being up Potters Lane which brought us to the slip road from the A3 leading into Ripley. At the roundabout at the top, we crossed to the other side of the A3 and took the road leading to the HM Prison, Send with lovely views southwards over the countryside. Hungry Hill, Guileshill, Ockham - the well-known route back to Cobham, only at Pointers Green we cut across to Downside Cobham and the off-road track to Stoke D'Abernon. Arriving reasonably early, 3.00p.m., it was a group of fifteen who took tea sitting outside at Shoots. Dark clouds were massing as we set off homewards in all different directions. I had a few spots of rain. Hopefully everyone else was just as lucky. Thanks, Liz, for being back-marker. Gill Finlay

1 comment:

Julian said...

Thank you, Gill, for a very enjoyable ride that joined up several places that previously I held in separate parts of my mind. On the way home, I turned off at the Saab garage, met up with Brian going through Cobham and he and I made our way through Esher to Kingston. Brian carried on to Putney. The rain held off for me.

Julian