We had a lovely warm ride to Bagshot before enjoying an al fresco lunch in the sunshine. But that was last year. Today was different.
It was a windless, sunless, cheerless sort of day, with a prickle of drizzle now and again. The forecast was for a balmy eleven degrees - lovely - but that never materialised. Despite Apple Maps saying that the Golden Cafe at Addlestone was "permanently closed", a goodly crowd of riders turned up in their warm weather gear, to find the cafe very much open as usual. Ed, Pam and Terry stayed in the cafe for tea and chat, while Tony, Graham, Diane, Liz, Ray, David & Jennie and myself set off towards Chobham, through a blizzard* of road works.
It was cold. One by one, like frostbitten toes, riders dropped off. First Tony had a disagreement with his legs about whether he wanted to go on the ride. Then Ray remembered some shopping he had to do. Everyone else blindly followed me on many roads that promised to lead to Chobham but never arrived. We did a sort of pirouette around Chobham, dodged the ford at Pennypot and then a near miss with Windlesham found us arriving at Bagshot. The Kings Arms was a little short on the bargains of previous visits, but we all managed to find something reasonably priced and reasonably filling.
Graham left us to find his own way home, and the surviving five returned through Sunninghill and Windsor Great Park to tea and warmth at Nauticalia. Thanks to Jennie for back marking and to all for your company.
* What IS the collective name for road works? Answers in the comments please.
No comments:
Post a Comment