1st April 2010: Mersey Estuary Ride

The first special (or as Brian and Dave prefer “novelty”) ride of 2010 just has to be on April Fools day.  Despite that and an early 9.30am meet in Frodsham combined with a poor weather forecast, ten members make it to the Cottage Tea Shop where we take over the back room conservatory.  Thanks to the friendly staff we are soon quaffing tea and toasted teacakes in preparation for the day ahead.  It’s a good mix today including some faces we haven’t seen for a while: Brian, Dave H, Mike, Glennys, Clive, Ivan, Jim, Liz, Martin and Bryan.
Dave announces that he has researched three different routes through Runcorn and that we will be taking the scenic one: and so it turns out to be.  After the initial maze of flyovers and underpasses we emerge to skirt Runcorn Hill with fine views all the way down the Mersey to Liverpool and Wirral.  What a grand way to start the ride.  From here it’s across the Runcorn/Widnes Bridge and down to join the Trans Pennine Trail.  In many ways this is the best part of the route (pity about the steps though) and we take in the scenery before heading inland to Hale to see the carved statue and grave of John Middleton the 9ft 3in Childe of Hale.  Bryan has come up with a new route this year bypassing Speke and the glass-strewn path by the motor works in favour of the lanes.  We leave the Trans Pennine Trail and take to the lanes before joining the old railway track at Halewood heading for Gateacre.
At Gateacre we leave the cycle trail and join the traffic to climb up to the ridge overlooking the Mersey before descending past Calderstones Park to the Red Bull at the eastern end of the Mersey promenade.  We’re doing well for time but Martin is thinking ahead and wondering where we will stop for lunch.  Brian recommends the Brewery Tap at Cairn’s Brewery near Liverpool Cathedral.  The suggestion is taken up with enthusiasm and without a further word we are off along the promenade into the wind.  The brewery is reached well before 1.00pm where we are directed to the empty brewery bike shed at the far corner of the car park.
Inside there is one other customer!  The full range of Cairn’s beers proves to be a daunting choice for some, as we don’t have time to sample more than a few: but no one goes away disappointed.  The food on the other hand is a different matter.  Soup and sandwich is off, as indeed is most of the menu but we can have a sandwich and chips (did someone say we had to wait for the bread to defrost?).  The last two orders emerged from the kitchen just before 2.00pm.  So for the second year running we have missed the ferry!
Brian leads us to James Street Station where we say goodbye to Glennys who takes a train back to Chester while the rest of us go one stop to Hamilton Square.  Here Bryan with bike almost topples backwards down the up escalator saved only by a quick thinking Mike.  With the exciting bit out of the way Brian leads us back through Birkenhead Park to Brimstage Craft Centre for a relaxing afternoon tea.  Brian leaves us here as we start the well-used route back to Chester through Thornton Hough, Willaston and Capenhurst dropping off riders along the way.  By the time we reach the canal at Backford there are only three of us left.

Photographs by Brian MacDonald

Distance from Chester and back just over 60 miles.
See route map and/or gpx file download.
BW