Travelling from Runcorn Steve and I found the A55 completely backed up, and just about manoeuvred our way out, and head toward Cheshire Oaks. Fortunately, our running calculations on the quickest diversion route to put us back on track for Chirk worked out perfectly. On arriving at Castle Bistro we met an impressive turnout of the Fast Lads. It was very pleasant having a chat with them and Dave Matthews, who needed to ride back to Oscroft to feed his goats (or did I get this wrong!). Anyway, Dave had made a big effort to be at Chirk, and paid me for his Christmas Lunch, and this is appreciated. The guys showed us pictures of Nick on a winter training holiday somewhere warm and exotic. Unfortunately, unlike Nick, we had a very fierce wet front to deal with today, instead of decisions about whether we needed factor 50 or less. Andy had arrived from Mold, so there were just Steve Tan, Andy and myself riding as moderates. Steve Hughes, Steve Haywood and Alan had considerately given me advanced notice that they would not be riding. After a very wet, flooded return ride from Loppington last April, I had decided to do a short south east loop, and have lunch back at Castle Bistro in an attempt to miss the forecast heavy rain due to arrive, hopefully, around 1p.m. Unfortunately, I should have looked at Carol's moving weather map properly, or listened to Andy, and I would have realised that the rain was likely to pass quite quickly. Plan A should probably have been: pick a lunch stop for about 12.30, and dine while the rain passed. I sensed that was the plan for the Fast Lads, but don't you usually get showers behind a heavy band of rain, and have even more chance of flooded roads, particularly on the small lanes the moderates frequent? Anyway, we started out towards the dodgey A5 roundabout, when Ray Baird, unexpectedly, caught up in his vehicle with his bike on the back! He had also been held up by the A55 incident on his long drive from far west Wirral. He quickly parked and sorted himself out in order to join us on the ride,
We took a familiar, quiet route out, past Ebnal Hall to Hindford. We then headed for Old Marton, and past the attractive old railway house at Crickett, nestling down on our right. We curved down to the B5068 where I lost us ten minutes by heading back toward Dudleston Heath instead of into Ellesmere. The ride to Ellesmere took us past Beech House used by Thomas Telford when building the Llangollen Canal. The lanes had been enjoyable and the weather dry so far, but we had ploughed through a few floods already. We passed the college and started back at Lee. Our return was via Tetchill, Onston, New Marton and St.Martins. Passing the Hardwick estate I managed to get stuck in deep water, and had to walk out, rather than ride. It would have made a good photo! At this stage we had forty minutes riding to go, and the storm had arrived. Back at the cafe we were so wet that we left large puddles where we had sat. I told a waitress that our seats were wet before I left, and she was fine about it. Lunch was very good, the cafe was warm, and we were able to have a chat and a laugh. I would, however, like to apologise to my comrades for selecting the strategy that resulted in their extreme wetness. It does make me think why we had Chirk as a summer only destination originally. The drive home was all sunshine and clear blue sky.
See route map and/or gpx file download
DH
Correction: it was Steve Tan who paid me for Xmas lunch. Dave Matthews had already paid me. My apologies to Dave!
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