Sunday February 9 2014 - The Ride

"Gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not there". Here's Paul's description of what you missed.

Thanks to Dave for filling in as the leader and using his Satnav to get us to Dorney Court Café. So four of us rode off and a few miles later the Hampton man left us. The route took us through Sunbury-On-Thames, Laleham, Staines-Upon-Thames and out to the first of the floods at Welley Road. The first one was only a short distance so we were able to ride on the pavement through the edge of the water. The end of this road and our left turn was under quite a bit of water. A few cars ploughed through the water and once the traffic had stopped we were able to walk round the edge of the road on the soggy grass and continue on our journey. It looks like the silver car in the picture had stopped in the water with its hazard lights on. We came from the right where the cyclists are heading. Further down the road it was flooded again but there was no stopping us as we lined up with the middle of the road and ploughed through. Pococks Lane was the last flooded road we came across. It was more like a river and we were on the towpath than a road so I thought another picture was in order. It was fairly straight forward from here past Eton College and across the very windy Dorney Common to a warm drink and cake at the café.

The group were happy to head for home after this stop, but just before we left we met another, I think Cheam and Morden rider, but I don’t know his name. He rode with us for most of the way back to Heathrow. The return leg sent us back across Dorney Common, past Eton College and over the river up towards Slough to avoid the floods. From there we headed down to Datchet, round the north side of the Queen Mother Reservoir, past Colnbrook and past Heathrow airport. When we got to Feltham I parted company with Dave and Helene, turned right and headed for Walton Bridge and home, while Dave and Helene turned left.

Door to door was 53 miles for me.