What a day , glorious blue skies no rain but just bitterly cold. In all eight of us met at ‘The botanic kitchen’, just five riders, three in civvies, just out for a social coffee. Steve Hu and Shane were guilty as charged since they had their bikes and cycling gear in the car. I continued to work on them and just as the ice outside was thawing I saw their resolve weakening. Hey up, we will have five out today I thought. That was until……….
In walked Chris the warrior, bedecked in shorts!
Did I mention it was minus two degrees Celsius outside. Not only wearing shorts
but also a bloody graze on his leg where terra firma and he had met on the way
to the cafe! Apparently, Chris had come off on one of the marsh cattle grids,
so we needed to be wary of icy patches. Steve Hu and Shane’s interest in the
ride quickly melted away!
George had a plan to return across the icy
wastes of Burton Marsh on a circuitous route to Holt, see GW’s blog.
Clive was driving to Norfolk later in the day so
it was Steve T, Chris and myself who decided on a clockwise Wirral loop that we
had ridden earlier this year. With the temperature still at minus 2, we didn’t
dawdle and soon passed through Neston and Thornton Hough and then the seemingly
never- ending uphill drag to Irby.
Downhill to Meols and on to the sea front, and, although it had warmed
up to 1 deg Celsius, it didn’t feel like it in the cold sea breeze. Maybe Steve Hu and Shane had
been right after all.
The low tide had attracted thousands of sea
birds, and also dozens of cocklers on quad bikes towing trailers, a hard way to
earn a living ordinarily and even more so on a cold winters day.
Changing the plan slightly we arrived at ‘The
Seaside Cafe’ a CER favourite
lunch stop.
As well as a scraped knee, Chris had also hurt
his hip, which was now giving him some discomfort. So Steve then reminisced
about some of his more spectacular tumbles over the years. A sobering reminder of the potential risks of
our pastime, of which our erstwhile secretary Dave H is blissfully unaware. LOL
We set off again to follow the prom to Seacombe
, by now turning into a strong and freezing headwind. Following the Wirral coast cycle path over
this section seems to be more difficult. It tends to zig zags left and right I
managed to lose my teammates for a while, reuniting at Woodside.
Chris left us at Childer Thornton to get back
for his evening shift; I don’t know where he gets the energy from, but then he is a good 30 years
our junior and holds the double award for the ascent of Hope Mountain with Matt
& Paul a few weeks ago.
So, a challenging 40 miles in the wintery
conditions, but made enjoyable by my two companions.
Alan O
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