24th January 2019: St Martin’s (mod)

Wednesday had been cold, snowy, icy and bright. Thursday was still cold but overcast, murky and muddy.  We still had a decent turnout at Cleopatra’s, with four moderate riders: Dave H, Steve T, Keith and myself.  Expecting ice, I had planned a route to St Martins which would allow us to travel on roads likely to have been gritted. As it turned out, mud had replace the ice so we were able to cycle along the quieter lanes.

We set out west of the River Dee and headed for Bangor-on-Dee. From here we took the road to Overton and headed towards St Martin’s until we reached Shellbrook Hill where we diverted onto smaller lanes heading for Dudleston, where we stopped for a photo in front of the church of St. Mary the Virgin. We took Gaia Lane, but soon came to a standstill as the route ahead was flooded, beyond which we could see deep muddy tracks – in Clive’s terminology, this would be called ‘agricultural’. We reversed and took a more direct route back onto the main St Martin’s road, and soon arrived at The Greyhound.

Photo by Steve T

The Greyhound gave us a warm welcome as did their fireplace. We ordered and were very quickly served with excellent food.  Three of us opted for the small fish and chips, which was definitely not that small and very tasty. Soon it was time to leave one of our favourite stops. 

We took the road to Dudleston Heath and then struck out north eastwards towards Holly Bush.  We entered Worthenbury by the back way and then passed through Shocklach and into Farndon where we stopped at Lewis’s for coffee and cake.  Here Keith left us to ride back to Waverton, and the remainder continued to Holt.

It had been a dull and muddy day, with light rain for most of the morning, but good conversation and refreshing stops turned it into and enjoyable 35 miles.

See route map and/or gpx file download

SH