17th February 2011: Audlem

A grey cool day and thus it remained all day except for a brief glimpse of the sun around lunchtime.  Setting out for Rose Farm, I caught up with Liz and Dave on their tandem close to the café.  Waiting there were Andy, Liz and Martin, Trevor, Ivan and Dave M. Dave M was still poorly from his Oz holiday flights, so came along for companionship and coffee.  Dave and Liz were not going the full distance today, so we six set off for the Shroppie Fly pub in Audlem.  A minute down the road I realised I had left something behind, so asking the group to carry on I returned to the café saying I would catch them up.  Setting off again, I charged down the hill towards Tarporley and up the other side.  A quick change down to bottom gear resulted in a crashing of gears and a dead stop.  The rear mech was not adjusted properly (mea culpa) and the chain was caught solid.  Trying to sort this out on the hill was not clever so I carried the bike to top of the hill where the Famous Five were patiently waiting.  Borrowing a screwdriver from a local resident, the gearing was sorted out and we all set off bound for Eaton the back way out of Tarporley.  Thankfully the rest of the ride was incident free.
Into Winterford Lane and a few left and rights then found us on the A51 a mile north of Barbridge.  Taking the lane there, we eventually ended up near to Reaseheath and crossing the static traffic on the A51 we were quickly in the centre of Nantwich. Going via Queens Drive and the cycle path along the River Weaver, we were soon out and on the Hack Green Secret Bunker road towards Audlem.  This is a long quiet lane and comes out a mile south of Audlem.  Up the hill and a quick left at the canal found us at the pub – only 21 miles ridden but we were ready for lunch.  Good service and excellent fare refreshed us as we set off with 28 miles to do.  Out along a brief stretch of the Market Drayton road, we were soon back to hedge debris lined lanes towards Wilkesley.  The route back was very straightforward once we arrived in Aston.  Taking the NCR 45 we seemed to bowl along getting to the Ice Cream farm by mid afternoon.  After the customary sampling of the cakes, Liz and Martin wended their way back to Rose Farm with just short of 50 miles ridden.  The remaining four took the customary route back to Chester.  For me a round trip from home of 70 miles.
See route map and/or gpx file download.

PS: On this ride, I was using my Android smart phone with ViewRanger OS maps and route planning.  It worked very well – it will be more seamless once I have a bike mount for it, rather than having to keeping stopping to look at the display!  Apologies to the group today and thanks for your patience.
CA