We arrived at Ness Gardens expecting few to turn up as many were unavailable and it was likely to be wet early doors and very windy. The return from holidays of Mike Dodd, George and Ray made the prospect of a group ride more viable. Clive had caught a heavy shower on his ride in, but was going to accompany Steve Tan on a more brisk outing. Andy had turned up for coffee, but was returning home because of the imminent birth of a grandchild.
We set out
optimistically as it wasn’t raining and increasingly likely to become dry as
the day wore on. We were giving the Wirral coastline a miss mainly to avoid the
exposure to high winds, and possible dangerous waves. The route through Burton,
and on back lanes past Willaston to Raby, Thornton Hough, Brimstage and
Storeton was very pleasant and sheltered. The long stretch to Barnston was into
a headwind, so some shelter provided by drafting Ray’s big windbreaking form
was welcome. We skirted around Heswall and headed for Royden Park via Irby Hill
before descending to West Kirby from Caldy.
The marine
lake was submerged by churning, wind whipped waves as the sea approached high
tide. The woman serving us was keeping a close eye on her car parked on the
promenade in front of us. We were at Tanskey’s again, originally suggested by
Ray a couple of months ago, but I had expected it to be too busy. We have been
lucky to squeeze in twice since, and the service, food and location make it an
attractive lunch option if you are in West Kirby. You may remember seeing
Tanskey’s on the television, totally flooded out in a storm some months ago. It
is heartening to witness their revival. Hopefully, the failure of the new storm
protection to prevent such an event has now been addressed and there won’t be a
repeat. Conversation over lunch was largely about recent holiday experiences,
George had travelled to Vietnam on an enjoyable family visit, Mike had
spectacular images on his phone of trekking in Iceland, and Ray had been
cruising again, this time in the Mediterranean. I had been wondering what had
happened to Ray’s hair. You couldn’t have hair tanned by the sun could you? It
turned out that he had had it coloured in a beauty salon on the cruise ship! To
be fair, as he has a thick head of hair anyway it probably makes him look
younger, and as I am bald so who am I to criticise? It's just a pity that the beautician couldn’t
go further and make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.
The route
home was along the Wirral Way. Although well sheltered, any wind was now in our
favour anyway. The surface appears to have been re-dressed in small stones and
was completely free of mud. We just had to be a little careful where the gravel
was deeper here and there. It was a direct and easy route before leaving it at
Neston for the last roads back to Ness. We had covered something like thirty
miles in convivial company and the weather had not been a problem.
DH
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