Norwesters 29/1/25

11's for us was the Ferry cafe at Shepperton Lock. It was nice to see a good turnout sat around their biggest table, it was nice to see Liz back on her bike, although still suffering with her hand she came as far as Lalham, then turned for home.. We split into 2 groups as the numbers were up to 13. We headed for Chertsey bridge and the path under the bridge heading for Lalham, but under the bridge was flooded, so a dash across the road did the job.

 

11's at the Ferry Cafe

Lalham came and went and we were soon cycling under Staines bridge heading for Wraysbury, and left at Wraysbury and into the edge of Datchet, here we turned right into Ditton road and onto the cycle path along side the M4 for half a mile before crossing the M4 on the foot bridge. The plan was to cycle through Ditton park, but within 25 metres we could see the path was under water as far as we could see, so a detour along Ditton park road bought us to the London road and across that into Kedermister Park and the cycle path to the Langley road,

 

Staines Swan Upper

 But before we could make it to the road, the puncture fairy raised it's ugly head and poor Jane was the victim, her groups stayed and undid the fairies work and I took my group the half mile to our lunch stop, the Red Lion The second groups soon arrived and we all settled in for lunch. The service wasn't fast as there was another large group settled in just before us..Plenty of chit-chat and a nice lunch saw us ready for the road again. Heading West to Market lane and we were soon past Richings park golf club, the site of many great Christmas dinners with another cycling club

 

Ready to depart from lunch

We were soon into Colnbrook, where the dreaded puncture fairy struck Jane's bike again!! The groups split into 2 again, with Ray's group repairing the puncture and my group heading off to the cycle path around the west side of Heathrow and into Ashford, where Pam left us for home, with Ray agreeing to meet us at the tea stop, Down through Charlton village and onto Haliford, where Dawn headed for Walton bridge where her van was parked and Carolyn and Christina headed for Hampton Court bridge, leaving just Gill and I going onto Squires for tea and cake, very soon Ray and Geoff joined us. Geoff headed off first, he had the furthest trip home, Ray went left out of Squires and Gill and I turned right, very shortly Gill turned right again, leaving me to cycle the 4.5 miles home. A really nice day on the bike with a lovely group. A special thanks to Ray and Geoff for all the assistance, Roll on Spring. 

 Tony..