Because of the restrictions and uncertainty caused by the pandemic, we have not had a Special Ride since October 2019, so it was a real delight when Dave Matthews offered to lead a Special Ride from Audlem to Ellerdine Heath. Jane at The Priest House Café had opened early to accommodate the CER riders who gathered for the ride. The ‘mods’ consisted of Daves M & H, Steves T & Hu, George and it was a real pleasure to also see Andy Whitgreave, who was making his first sortie with CER since the start of the pandemic.
After coffee, tea and refreshments, we set off at about 10 o’clock on the Woore Road out of Audlem heading up hill for Norton in Hales and Loggerheads. From there, Dave took us down to Knighton and Newport, where we started heading west for Great Bolas and eventually arrived at Ellerdine Heath at about 1 pm, having covered 32 miles.
Following some excellent refreshments at the Oakgate Nursery and Café and having fiddled unsuccessfully to cure a strange noise that my bike was making, we struck out for home. The route took us via Stanton to the fearful hill at Marchamley. To make things even more ‘interesting’, the road surface on the hill was badly broken up and wet, so the only person to successfully ride all the way up it was ‘super – Steve’ Hughes. The rest of us got off and pushed!
Having recovered our breath and calmed the hearts, we followed the route through Ash Magna and Wilkesley entering Audlem from the east on the A525, arriving as the church clock struck four.
An interesting and entertaining day out on delightful lanes, many of which were new to us on a day when the early autumn weather was kind. Thanks are due to Dave M for devising the route and to the rest of the mods for great company.
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| Photo by SHu |
See route map and/or gpx file download
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