An impressive turnout of 13 Easy Riders met at the Roodee Café to be joined by guest rider Chris on a very chilly morning but with the promise of sun later.
The brisk group had had a long ride on Tuesday and decided to join us for the ride originally planned for Pant-yr-Ochain, but just as we were about to set off Brian M spotted a puncture: rear wheel of course! Then Ray noticed a broken spoke and set off home for a change of bike. Meanwhile, Martin, Dave H, Dave M, Trevor, Keith, George, Jim, Clive and Dave & Liz, helped fix Brian’s tyre.
Several minutes later we set off for Handbridge, Kinnerton and Hope. Crossing the Alyn valley, we continued upwards round the flank of Hope Mountain and onto the Corwen road at Treuddyn. With most of the climbing done we sped down the Cegidog valley towards Ffrith. A ‘road closed’ sign was ignored and we continued to within a few yards of ‘The Steps’ to be informed by the workers that the road was indeed closed due to several large holes that had appeared: we couldn’t even walk through. Reluctantly we retraced our route to the diversion through Ffrith: uphill naturally. Much to our surprise we met George at the junction. He had had a slight mechanical problem and got a bit off pace due to our rather enthusiastic downhilling. By now, time was also speeding away, and we decided not to head for our original destination, but to go to Cefn-y-bedd. There we found the Hollybush - ‘food served all day’. Ideal for us, and the staff were not phased by such a large group. The meals were well priced and a good choice: will definitely go there again. Chris left us at this point to take up grandparent duties. I hope he enjoyed his first foray with CER.
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| Ivan's Corner, Llay |
Photograph by Clive Albany
Martin peeled off a little later as we took the back road through Llay for a photo stop at ‘Ivan’s Corner’. Clive recommended a very nice lane parallel with the A483 that took us to Marford but without having to climb the steep hill up into Gresford. Here it really was all downhill and we soon reached the Cleopatra’s in Holt. Too soon for some, but the general feeling seemed to be for coffee and cake, so we reclined in the afternoon sun taking in the bustle of Holt Main Street. The return was through Farndon and the Churton and Aldford by-passes, before we split again at Saighton. The Chester group continued on to Sandy Lane, while the rest headed for Waverton and Guilden Sutton.
About 45 miles in total, and a very sunny afternoon. Met men right again!
JD
Amazing. My bike had a puncture in Chester, when I was up in Skye.
ReplyDeleteYou're getting out of touch Brian! Too many trips away I do believe. We now have almost as many members named Brian or Bryan as Dave. Rest assured your bike remained untainted by the puncture affecting new member Brian M.
ReplyDeleteTo add to the confusion I'll sign off as Bryan