You don't normally expect to see wildlife on an urban ride. Of course, there's deer in Richmond Park, and though obviously not wild, you can often catch sight of a herd of Charolais cattle in Osterley Park, on the edge of urban Hounslow. But it was a surprise on our ride to see a fox running amongst shoppers in South Harrow High Street! And there was a rat, (dead) on the Grand Union Canal towpath. Bright green screeching parakeets were seen in Richmond Park. Bird life was also abundant on the canal - including coots, moorhens, and gulls. However a group, (collective noun a bevy, a bank, a herd or a gaggle?) of swans tried to disrupt our progress on the canal towpath at Southall.
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Bird life on the Canal
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Frances's group was first away from Kingston YMCA. They made such good progress that reaching the Moon on the Hill at noon, decided to press-on to have a late lunch/afternoon tea at The Stables, Osterley Park. I'm sure they must have reached home by mid afternoon!
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| Osterley Park late lunchers. |
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| Coffee at the Hawker Centre. |
Dave Ward led his group next - having sensibly recommended Barnes railway bridge onto Dukes Meadow instead of the notorious South Circular to Kew bridge. In his words "the 10.35 departing group had a very uneventful experience on Ged's ride, and that is just the way I prefer it! Neil W, Neil C, Peter S, Simon L, Steve D and I set off promptly in the lovely winter sunshine and made steady progress around the route, even avoiding the temptation to 'cut off the corners' in Richmond Park. I always seem to get caught by the 'double jeopardy' at Vine Road level crossings and this time was no exception, but we only had the briefest of delays, and were on our way again before you could say 'shiver'! A fastish pace keeps the cold at bay and we somehow managed to arrive at lunch just after 12.00 pm. Service was friendly and efficient and we were on our way again, suitably refreshed, by 1.00 pm. Leaving Harrow town centre a minor navigational blip (I blame the Garmin) required a very short retrace. This was the only excitement of the whole ride and we were quickly enjoying a lovely ride along the Paddington Branch towpath. At Osterley we caught up with Frances's group and I was able to switch to auto-pilot! This rested my brain but did mean we had to exert ourselves a bit to keep her group in sight as they did set a mean pace over the last few miles!
Thanks to Ged for master-minding what was an ideal ride for a short winter's day, to my group for their company, and to Steve D for back-marking all day."
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| Barnes bridge. |
My group caught-up the middle group at the 'Spoons in Harrow (which lacked baked potatoes and served some dubious beer!).
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| Moonies |
The ride along the Canal was sometimes challenging, caused by the blindingly bright, low winter sun reflecting off the water.
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| Dave W's group. |
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Blinding light!
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After stopping in Osterley Park for the traditional comfort break, Dave's group left Steve Duffin to greet us at the Richmond Bridge Cafe.
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| Osterley Park - a traditional stop. |
Out of a total group of 18, four made it to tea in Richmond. Feeling chilly as the sun went down, Steve and I tried to cycle home on the Thames towpath - only to discover the high Spring tide left the path impassible under a few feet of water! A trek up to the Petersham Road was the alternative.
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Richmond high Spring tide.
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Many thanks to Frances and Dave Ward for sub-leading, and for the many helpful suggestions on route changes in making the ride so enjoyable. After wet Autumn riding a sunny, although chilly day, was very welcome.
This was the route - for future rides up to Harrow on the Hill.
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