It was a good turnout at Cleopatra’s in Holt, too many in
fact to fit in the newly refurbished back room.
The fast lads left early. Of
those remaining, Trevor wasn’t out for a full ride, leaving our newish member Andy,
Jim, Mike G, Jane, Charlie, Chris, Bryan, Dave P and myself. I had in mind a
visit to the Navigation Inn at Maesbury Marsh, a good destination that we hadn’t been to for some time.
We set off through Farndon, Worthenbury and Holly Bush before
taking the sharp right turn at the bottom of the hill that would eventually
lead to Duddleston Heath. It was here
that too much enthusiasm on the descent led Andy, Chris and Charlie to
overshoot and disappear into the distance towards Penley. The rest of the party
continued while I waited, but after nearly 10 minutes the three had not
returned. As someone might have said ‘to
lose one rider is a misfortune, to lose another two looks like carelessness’. I re-joined the main party as we pondered
what to do. Andy had appeared by then,
but there was no sign of the others and calling them elicited no response. We decided to carry on, to
be surprised when they eventually appeared behind us.
We crossed the A495 at Welsh Frankton and continued along
delightful lanes and two very humpy hump-backed bridges, to pass through West
Felton and approach our destination from the south. The Navigation had been
warned of our arrival and we settled down to some good food and good beer,
justifying the pub's place in our favourites list.
Here we said goodbye to Andy who had to return to Mold for
an appointment, and temporarily to Dave P who had to pick up a part for his
lawn mower from Oswestry, though we hoped to meet up again later. The return
by-passed Oswestry and took us through Whittington, before skirting Gobowen and
entering St Martins. From here we
followed the main route, through the steep valley of Shell Brook, to enter
Overton. Here we stopped for refreshments
at the Cup 'n' Saucer, previously the Woodlands Deli, another of our
favourites. We were served essential
quantities of cake and caffeine, while Dave P re-joined us.
From Overton, it was into Bangor and up the busy main road
before turning right and then following the little lanes northwards to the west
of the Dee. Here an unexpected move from an errant pedestrian and an oncoming
car forced Charlie into the verge, but no harm was done. We arrived back in Holt with 53 miles on the
clock, grateful that under overcast skies we had avoided any serious rain and
had a good day out.
SH
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