3 October Bagshot x3

A serious drop in temperature alerted us to the change of season as we followed the yellow brick road to Bourne Valley Garden Centre for the first ride of autumn.   Bob, David, Pam, Tony, Ed, Lilian, Graham, Jennie and myself were delighted to be joined by Vic, who we haven't seen on a C&M ride since before Covid struck.

Serious discussions at 11s

The cold grey weather for our ride to 11s was replaced by cold but beautifully sunny weather as we assembled for departure.   Bob, Vic and Ed headed home, and Tony also headed back after a short distance as we followed a very zig-zag route to Bagshot.  On the Basingstoke canal towpath we saw quite a few runners, part of the 40,000 running the 'virtual' part of the London Marathon, (in addition to the other 40,000 who were running around the London course).

Around Horsell we encountered a familiar rider: it was Elliott, who had read the runs list rather quickly and gone to Bagshot for 11s.   Realising his mistake, he followed the route in reverse to join us.   At Pennypot ford, after the heavy rain of yesterday, we all sensibly took the footbridge option - except one.   David rode straight into the rather deep ford...at one time all we could see was his snorkel, but he emerged out the other side saying "it's a bit deeper than the last time I did it", and giving all the credit to his Sealskinz socks for keeping him dry.

No pictures of the ford, unfortunately, but this is the lock at New Haw

The King's Arms in Bagshot offers a great range of food at extremely reasonable prices - on weekdays - but still at quite reasonable prices on a Sunday.  We were served very quickly and sat outside, enjoying the company and the sunshine.    Elliott was now reunited with his car, but elected to do the afternoon ride to Shepperton and then ride back to Bagshot for his third visit of the day.   We don't know if he had three meals there.

Outside the King's Arms, Bagshot

Due to forecast rain in the afternoon, I shortened the route a little.  The quiet road to Sunninghill that I enjoyed on the recce was infested by rather fast 4x4 drivers today, and we arrived shaken but not stirred, before finding some quieter roads to Windsor Great Park.   Going round the lake probably wasn't a great choice on a Sunday afternoon with plenty of people around, but with the smooth tact and diplomacy that C&M riders are famous for we managed not to knock anyone over or get into any fights.

Elliot's bike gets a little TLC from his domestiques.

We had one short but heavy shower on our way home, and were visited by another during tea at Shepperton, where we sat outside but under cover (is there a James Bond theme developing here?) watching the cars queue for petrol on the High Street.  Suddenly Graham recognised Ray and shouted.   Ray had been delayed at the start due to a flu jab, and had then chased us (more or less) around the route trying to catch up with us.   After he couldn't find us at our usual haunts at Shepperton, he was on his way home when Graham spotted him.

A beautiful clear but cold day out, with beautiful people.