A showery damp day was forecast by the Met Office and six riders turned up for the brisk ride, John W, John M, Ivan, Clive, Nick and myself. The ‘moderates’ planned a ride to the Bradford Arms at Llanymynech and, coincidently , the ‘brisk’ group, courtesy of Ivan, planned a ride to the Bradford Arms at Knockin, but the day became the day of the detours.
The rain was falling as we left Chirk and headed up the Ceiriog valley and into Glyn Ceiriog. Turning left across the river, we climb to the high point of the day Graignant (350 metres) where we stopped to take a photo. Alas, the autumn colours, although lovely, just needed a little sunshine to make them spectacular.
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| Yes, there is another hill over there |
Onwards through Selattyn and before climbing the hill to the Old Racecourse, west of Oswestry, we came to a stop as our road was blocked due to tree-felling operations . We dismounted and carried the bikes past the obstruction before riding through various unpronounceable Welsh hamlets. On reaching the bridge over the canal and river about 1.5 km outside Llanymynech, we found the bridge closed for maintenance. The bridge repair operative made it very clear that no-one was going to pass. Even though, in our view, it looked as though we could dismount and walk across. A roadside discussion ensued to determine a diversion; this resulted in turning away from the bridge and heading into Four Crosses along the main road to rejoin our route in Llanymynech. This detour only added 4 km .
The road into Knockin was flat but John M was feeling a bit under the weather and struggling to keep up, so John W held back to keep him company while the rest of the group, totally unaware of John’s issue, carried on to the pub. On entering the Bradford Arms car park, it was evident that a large funeral wake was in progress and we were politely told that they could not accommodate us. After another discussion, we decided to divert to the Queens Head at Queens Head although poor John did not relish the extra miles to the lunch stop.
Leaving Knockin we headed out through Woolston to West Felton where, at the crossroads, the Punch Bowl inn came into view. We were relieved when the landlord confirmed that they were still serving food given it was 2pm and we had ridden 61 km. The Punch Bowl has a nice friendly atmosphere and everyone appeared to enjoy their lunch so it is venue well worth adding to the CER lunch list.
We were back on the bikes by 3pm and heading to Rednall, here we rejoined our original route. John M had recovered during lunch and we all cycled together for the remaining 22 km to Chirk. On arrival at Chirk, everyone went there separate ways; Clive and John M to their cars, Nick and myself opted for a coffee prior to our drive home, Ivan and John W chose to ride home rather than wait an hour for the train.
The original route is 86 km but because of all our detours we rode 84 km with 1199 meters of ascent, John and Ivan’s mileage was obviously a lot higher.
A lot happened today with plenty of disruption to our planned route.However, I subsequently took a closer look at the OS map which revealed the diversion we took at Llanymynech could have been shortened to just 400 mtrs by using a canal towpath and aqueduct to cross the River Vyrnwy!
See route map and/or gpx file download
KP
Photo KP
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