Despite a frosty start the forecast was for a dry, warm and sunny day with little or no wind: ideal conditions for cycling. It was no surprise then to find that Cleopatra's was heaving when I got there. I tried to count heads but with people milling about I failed. There must have been at least 18 members present. For various reasons several people wanted a fairly slow ride, or at least slower than the usual moderate rides. So for possibly the first time in CER history three rides were planned. It had been a while since I had completed a ride so I offered to lead a relaxed one that would take us to the Greyhound Inn at Street Dinas (St. Martins). The moderate riders were also heading to the same place but by a different route.
Five of us, Dave P & Liz on the tandem, Dave H, Keith and myself set off across the 14th century bridge over the Dee into Farndon then down through Shocklach, Tallarn Green, Horseman’s Green & Penley. We skirted past Ellesmere before turning back up towards St Martins, arriving at the Greyhound Inn with 22 miles on the clock.
We were greeted with a warm welcome at the Greyhound and were delighted with the 50p cost of a pint of lime & soda - the same as it had been on our previous visit to the Greyhound almost 5 years ago! The blog on that occasion had reported that the food had been disappointing. Not so on this occasion. The service was good too and we were already tucking in to a delicious meal when the moderate group arrived. Our conversation started with a discussion of the morning's route out before moving on to more important topics such as the forthcoming EU in/out vote. No doubt the latter topic will come up many times before referendum in June.
We left the moderates to finish their meal and set off on a more direct route back to Holt. We followed the main road into Overton and then on through Worthenbury just beyond which we joined our outbound route. We retraced our route back through Shocklach but turned off it at Crewe-by-Farndon to take the short cut back to Farndon. A short dash back over the bridge to Holt and we were soon sampling a selection of Cleopatra's cakes having enjoyed a very pleasant 39-mile ride.
TC
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