26th November 2009: Soughton

It was a beautiful but cold day with a stiff breeze blowing when without a map between us Liz D and myself decided to get up onto the hills behind Northop.  With Liz leading the route and with a steady ascent to 800ft, we arrived at the top near to the Blue Bell Inn.  With a partial descent via tiny lanes, a near miss with a Chelsea tractor for Liz, and large hunting party blocking the lane, we turned up through Soughton towards Mold and the Glas Frynn beckoned for a well deserved lunch. The return was fast and easier retracing our route to Northop then Ewloe and back to Hawarden.  I continued back downhill all the way back to Mollington to complete a very pleasant 34 mile ride.
For route map and/or GPX file download see:
CA

20th August 2009: Hidden villages of North Wales

The party of Mike, Dave H, Jim and David were joined at the Gallery tea rooms by Bryan who was not riding but had brought some maps and route ideas after our last fiasco here when we hadn’t got a map between us!
We set off under a glowering sky and with a very threatening forecast. Ewloe was found ok and after a slight attempt by Mike to take us to the beaches of Flint, we headed straight on past the Agricultural College towards Halkyn. A brief sprint along the A55 and we were heading up the hill to the village. The sky still threatened, but never quite delivered, and we found ourselves at a junction in Pentre Halkyn. We didn’t need the map as we could remember the route from last time: Big mistake!! The map is clearly more accurate than our memories, but with a combined group age of over 200 that’s hardly surprising. After a little while we found ourselves on the old main road in Holywell, and took the maps out. Fortunately the turning to our next stop, Whitford, was not too far away and we were back on route again.
Just outside the village, Mike warned us not to go straight on as this lead to a steep horrible hill, so we turned left up an alternative steep horrible hill!
With careful use of the map and signposts, we proceeded to Llanasa where the whole village had joined in the scarecrow competition: very impressive efforts too. With confidence growing we took the road for Gwaenysgor and lunch at 1.30.
Without Ray’s extensive knowledge of the price of lime and soda we paid up without comment. With a downpour just as we were leaving, Jim decided to put his coat on, and sure enough, the sun was out moments later. Out came the maps again, and we decided to take a variation of Graham’s route home and headed towards the higher parts of Dyserth and Cwm. We then picked up the B road to Llyn Helyg and crossed the A55 again despite the road being signed as a ‘no through route’.
From there we took the high road back towards Halkyn, and the exposed village of Windmill. Still no rain, but the wind nearly blew us into the fields on a number of occasions. Turning left by the Bluebell Inn above Halkyn, we set off downhill at last back towards Northop. Retracing our path from the village, we arrived back at Hawarden about 5 pm. A total of 44 miles with a bit more for Mike and David, but a good day and we never got wet.
JD