After the excellent turnout of the last four weeks and with reasonable weather in store, I was amazed and pleased to see a dozen riding from Ness Gardens, especially as I’d promised hills. 
You can see them all lined up outside my house in a posed photo reminiscent of a very early CER ride. Shortly after this was taken in Heswall, the tandem left us, probably a wise move as we then tackled 6 steep hills in West Wirral. My intention was to hill-climb for two hours until lunch beckoned. We managed this around Little Neston, Lower Heswall and then across the peninsula to climb Storeton Hill, before Ivan put a stop to proceedings with a puncture. Fortunately it was only two miles straight down to the recently re-opened Refreshment Rooms, Rock Ferry. The former hotel served the passengers using one of the six ferries from Wirral to Pier Head and can be found at Bedford Road East, Rock Ferry, CH42 1LS, tel: 0151 644 5893. A poster inside advertised ferries on the half-hour, EVEN on Christmas Day 1916. Photographs by Brian MacDonald
Having heard good reports about this place, I had been keen to bring CER here since it reopened two years ago. I had provisionally booked us in from the previous day and noticed they offered an Over 60’s two courses for £7-50. On asking if we could have it, the lovely Millie and her sister Olivia agreed. We all thought that we should use this place whenever we depart from Ness. It was a gem, and even if service was slightly slow, we didn’t mind.
The gods were doubly kind to us after such an excellent meal and Conway Bitter, we came out to find it had rained when we were at lunch. By now it was 14:20 and wintery, so we pressed on back down the eastern shoreline to Bromborough, before crossing The Wirral via Hargraves, Willaston and Ness. Arriving back at the Botanical Gardens by 15:30 still gave the Chester riders time to cycle home while four of us enjoyed afternoon tea in the warmth. Thanks to Clive and Steve for the .gpx that recorded an amazing 1400 feet of ascent on a short 30 mile route around Wirral. I received an email afterwards; “I don’t know how you manage to find more different routes around the Wirral but thank you for making it interesting today”.
BMacca
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