5 July - a Windy Walton to Windsor

A proper tea, in a proper cafe!

I planned this ride in February, in a different world, but it was cancelled due to heavy rain and lack of interest.   Plan B was to go to the recently opened Notcutts garden centre for proper elevenses, but it looked like a Covid-secure breakfast might take us until about noon, so we started at the excellent Wilde Brunch in Walton instead.

There were ten at Walton: Terry, Dave Vine and Tony opted not to ride further, leaving 6 + 1 setting off to Windsor.  David Ward as back marker for the group of six, and Graham as long stop, occasionally in sight but mostly stalking us at a great distance.   A wild westerly wind was worrisome, but a lot of the time we seemed to be sheltered from it.   The route was pretty straightforward: over Walton Bridge, Shepperton, Chertsey, Trumps Green and Virginia Water, although we avoided the lakeside path and stuck to the road round the edge.   

Somewhere round Cheapside, David punctured and handed over back-marking duties to Graham while he fixed the puncture and caught us up later.   Now we had the wind behind us and this powered us into Windsor Great Park, down into Windsor itself and Alexandra Park, where there was a nicely socially distanced bench in the sunshine.   There was even talk of ice creams but in the end the toilets had more of an attraction for us.   The town itself was heaving with people but the park was surprisingly quiet.

Alexandra Park (Lilian sitting in the shade & Pam behind the camera)

Pam took this just before I lifted it up

The route home: even simpler: wind assisted past Datchet, Old Windsor, Runnymede, Egham to Staines & Laleham, where we rode beside the river back to Chertsey Bridge and then on to Nauticalia in Shepperton.  Nauticalia was very well organised with socially distanced tables and hand sanitizer everywhere you looked.  It was a real treat to be able to sit in the sunshine and chat over a proper cup of tea with good company.   Thank you all, and especially to David W and Graham for back marking.