4th August 2011: Ellesmere

The weather forecast was for light rain until 10:00 and then a clear day – no, wrong!; raining until 12:00 and then progressively clearing up until the sun appeared at 16:00.  Still, a little bit of rain was not going to spoil a potentially enjoyable and “flat” ride from the Ice Cream Farm to the Black Lion in Ellesmere.  Six of us left in the rain (Martin and Liz, Ray, Ivan, myself and Bill on his first outing with us) taking a near straight-line routing to Whitchurch.  Dave M came for the tea only and then went home as we left.  The idea for the first 15 miles to Whitchurch was to ride as close to the A41 as possible but minimising the actual use of the A41.  The original plan had been to go up to Burwardsley then Harthill but given Bill was on his first outing, I re-routed via Bolesworth Castle to hit the A41 for the first time at No Mans Heath.  Taking the first left, we looped back to the A41 to go left then first right to pass by the “Bell o’ th’ Hill” pub and then cross the A41 to take the lane opposite to re-emerge at Grindley Brook.  Joining the canal and negotiating the flight of locks here, we took the largely good towpath to a lifting bridge to exit into Whitchurch (thus avoiding the A41 itself).  Out towards Alkington, the rain had now stopped and the pleasant lanes took us to Welsh End where we left the way-marked cycleways bound for Lyneal and Colemere.  Taking the A528 into Ellesmere, we took a surprisingly hilly Sandy Lane to access the town centre after 30 miles and the Black Lion beckoned.  The pub has had a bit of welcome makeover since we last visited in May 2010 but still has a good range of food and reasonable prices.  With 25 miles to go, the afternoon would be a pleasant spin through the Welsh borderlands.  And so it was as the temperature rose, we negotiated the twists and turns from Ellesmere via Hampton Wood and Haighton to Threapwood.  Similarly the NE track out took us past the wooded Overton Scar and Edge Hall to cross the A41 at Duckington.  Up the Hill towards Brown Knowl it was then all downhill back to the Ice Cream Farm for tea at 16:15.  The last mile or so ended up as a sprint as Martin shot off at 25mph with three of us in pursuit.  For Bill it was a long but hopefully a pleasant 55 miles, and as the three of us took the usual way back to Chester we knew we would notch up 75 miles for the day.
See route map and/or gpx file download.
CA