9th March 2017: Street Dinas / St Martins (mod)

A sunny spring-like day was forecast and although it was sunny there was a cool wind blowing early on. This prompted several of us to wear too many layers for the day’s ride. The sunny weather produced a good turnout and despite Jim and me arriving early, Cleopatra's was already busy when we entered. Dave H had planned a ride to Loppington but had phoned the pub only to find that it was closed for refurbishment until Easter. Maybe one for later in the year. I had one planned that would take us to the Greyhound Inn at Street Dinas near St. Martins, and thought it would be prudent to phone and check that it was open. It was and they would be able to accommodate us.

There were twelve moderate riders at the café. Mike G set off to do his own thing and the rest of us set off across the 14th century bridge over the Dee into Farndon. Dave P & Liz on the tandem decided they would find their own way to the Greyhound (but later we heard they turned round and headed home) and Bryan left us at Crewe-by-Farndon having ridden down to Cleopatra’s. This left eight of us. The regulars, Andy W, Dave H, George, Jim, Keith, Steve and myself were joined by Rob riding with us for the first time. As we carried on through Shochlach and Talwrn Green it soon became apparent that the cool wind was not going to be sufficient to stop us getting overheated and several times we stopped so that riders could shed a layer or two. We continued through Horseman’s Green & Penley and ignored several ‘road closed’ as we skirted past Ellesmere getting through the closed road with ease. Then we turned back up towards St Martins, arriving at the Greyhound Inn with 22 miles on the clock.

We were greeted with a warm welcome and with our drinks in hand we settled at our table to study the menus. When the landlady arrived to take our orders there were the inevitable questions. ‘What do you get with ham & eggs’? Eggs & ham of course.  Andy’s was the best though. ‘What’s the difference between large fish & chips and a small fish & chips’? Size obviously matters to Andy. (In case you are wondering the definitive answer is £3.50). The service was excellent and our food soon appeared – and soon disappeared. Before we knew it, it was time to get back on our bikes.

We intended to follow the main road into Overton but were warned that this road too was closed. However with several places that we could make a detour we set off anyway. Again we got through the closed section easily with the added benefit that the road closure meant that we got most of the way to Overton with the road to ourselves. We then carried on through Holly Bush and Worthenbury before re-joining our outbound route. As we retraced our route back through Shochlach, Jim and I fell behind but everyone knew the way back from there so didn’t need my lead any more. At Crewe-by-Farndon we turned left to take the short cut back to Farndon. As we crossed back over the bridge to Holt we expected to find the others already tucking in to cakes at Cleopatra's but there was no sign of them. Nor were they back in the car park. Surely they could not have got lost! No. They had found their way back to Farndon and were trying out the recently opened café there before completing what had been a very pleasant 39-mile round trip.

See route map and/or gpx file download
TC