B Group - 28th August (story and maps)

It was not surprising, given the good weather, that Weybridge Day Centre was bulging at the seams with cyclists!  I spoke to a local resident, commenting on the noise around her, but she said she was enjoying the hubbub of conversation and particularly seeing all the legs!!

I started off with about 24 followers, including new rider Mike, but with the prospect of a stint on the towpath from Walton to Molesey, three opted to go by road and meet us at the other end.  It was a lovely ride beside the river where there was not a ripple!  From Hampton Court, where unfortunately Anna left us due to a puncture, we headed into Bushy Park and across to Hampton Wick.  Here we took the lower road to Teddington Lock, crossed over the footbridge and wove through the various footpaths to Ham.  Off-road again, we followed good-surfaced paths down to the back of Ham House and then parallel to the river to Petersham, going down to the towpath for the last lap into a busy Richmond, passing several people with box-like contraptions on the front of their bikes carrying children or one lady, a dog.  Hire bikes?  From Richmond, where we crossed the river once more, it was a short ride to the London Apprentice at Isleworth.  (Peter C had had to withdraw with a broken cable before we reached the pub.)

The pub coped pretty well with the numbers, apart from one or two hiccups (it has been suggested that adding names to orders might help alleviate these problems) and had set aside two big tables for us, though in fact only one was used as others opted to sit outside.  A shame that the tide was out but we needed low tide at Petersham.

After lunch we headed on downstream to Kew Bridge (Canadian David punctured on the way and Tim stayed to help him fix it.) where we had to cope with a heap of traffic.  We soon got away from it by going back to the towpath and on down to Mortlake.  From here we turned south and entered Richmond Park at East Sheen Gate.  Lots of fine-looking deer were to be seen in the Park.  We left at Ham Gate, cycled across to Tudor Drive and back down to the towpath for tea at the YMCA cafe.  We had lost a few going home from the Park but there was still a good number at tea, where there was a rendition of Happy Birthday for Irene and a slice of cake with a red straw for a candle!  And Tim and Dave rejoined the fold!  Thanks to Pam and Irene for being back markers.

Gill Finlay
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Gill's day in the sun: note that the route shown from Kew Bridge back to the YMCA Hawker Centre in the afternoon is not the official route but is that taken by the puncture party, David and Tim

We eventually discovered the cause of David's puncture