B Group report - 24th January

For our cycling excursion out from Walton to Woking, 27 keen Wayfarers 🚵 enrolled.

On this occasion we weren't able to avail ourselves of the hospitality of the Walton Day Centre. Seemingly they can't get the Staff - (to coin a phrase.)

So The Wilde Brunch became our Elevenses meeting point. 

To try and appease the motoring fraternity we split into three groups, The Falcons, the Galahs, and the Harriers.

The group I led was composed of nine riders, Margaret, Diane, Christina, Ann, Steph, Sabina, Bernard, Tony Hooker, this being the middle group on the road, with the group name of the Galahs 😀🦜. 

A Westerly headwind prevailed on our outward leg of the ride. Today's weather was a juxtaposition of last week's cool weather.

The upside was the fact that it kept the motorists' pollution at bay. The tailwind was helpful after lunch, heading homeward from the Herbert Wells in Woking.

Some of our group made a welcome stop for fuel in the afternoon, at the Riverside Barn in Walton.

The Navigator leading our group did seem to struggle to some degree, so thank you to the assistant navigators 😁.

Also thanks to our good backmarker!  

Thanks to all who took part in our ride today, which made it an enjoyable day out.

~ Dave (Fixie)

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Blessed with a dry, warm but breezy day, it was a big turnout by the B's.

After a refreshing coffee at the Wilde Brunch café at Walton Bridge, the 7 Falcons (Francis leading, Brenda, Julie, Dawn, Ian W, Tim G and John A) left on time to head west towards Addlestone, LongCross and Chobham Common where the group stopped to admire the views and take a breather.

Suitably refreshed, we pushed on towards Woking and lunch at The Herbert Wells (Wetherspoons pub). On seeing a statue of H.G Wells, Tim instinctively gave us a history lesson on Woking's most famous resident and writer of The War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man.

The usual quick service saw us about to leave just as The Galahs walked into the pub.

The afternoon's ride was 10 miles back to Walton via Woodham and we arrived in good time. A few departed for home while the rest headed for their cuppa at the Riverhouse Barn.

A special thank you to Ian W who tried valiantly to help Julie get her low gears working again, even scouring around for bike repair shop in Woking. Alas, no luck but hopefully it will be fixed today.  

An enjoyable day out after the miserable weather of late.

~ Francis

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We had a very good turnout for a winter ride, nearly 30 riders made there way to Wilde Brunch Café at Walton-on-Thames for Elevenses. Dave had planned the day and organised three teams, The Falcons led by Francis, The Galahs led by Dave and The Harriers led by Mick, we departed in that order.

Our Team Harriers left the cafe more or less on time. We were hampered with a headwind as we headed west from Walton-on-Thames nor did that ease as we turned south towards Woking. Nevertheless the weather was kind considering Storms Isha and Jocelyn had battered the area in the prior days. We kept the pace easy to reflect the weather and ‘new year legs’. The route was pleasant and we enjoyed riding across Chobham Common where we stopped for a group photo catching the prior group ‘The Galahs’ completing their photo opportunity. On through Chobham into Woking where we lunched at The Herbert Wells.

As this was a winter ride we were expecting a lot of riders to skip the afternoon ride but most continued. We headed north east and were relieved to have a tail wind. It was a short ride of 10 miles back to Walton where we stopped for a very pleasant tea and cake at Riverhouse Barn.

We all returned home having had the cobwebs definitely blown away.

~ Mick

(also in the team but not in the photos: Tony Hopkins and Pam)