Cheam & Morden Sunday the 5th November

To the Fox at Hanwell, eventually

I had planned a route of about 18 miles to lunch with a fair bit of off road, great I thought, 11's was at the Pheasantry Bushey park, which was very crowded, even at 10am. I settled down for a coffee with 4 or 5 already there, but soon the number began to swell until there were 21! Luckily a few were not going to lunch, still, 18 assembled in 2 groups, Dave, backmarking the first group and Simon leading the second group and without the route and satnav! I had my Garmin but forgot I had taken its mount off my bike, still, I knew most of the route, just a couple of side roads, to keep off main roads that I wasn't sure off, but any worries were unfounded.

 

Buhey Park

Off out of Bushey at Hampton Hill and through roads of Hampton, and under the A316 to the edge of Feltham. We were soon cycling through Heathrow Airport, at times with a really strong headwind, and through Harlington and the M4 underpass, at which point the puncture fairy struck my back wheel. Many helpers and 20 minutes later we were off again (couldn't find a puncture in the tube?). As we were 2 groups, it meant a slow ride trying to keep the other group in sight, and with the puncture delay, I decided to shorten the route to lunch and use more of the canal towpath, one look at the thick mud at Southal changed my mind.

 

Photo call while I mened the Puncture 

So after 2 deadends and a couple of oneway streets, we were on the Norwood road heading to Norwood Green and back on the canal, down past the Hanwell flight, arriving at the Fox ¾s of an hour later, 1.45. The pub had still kept our tables.


The pub was very busy and considering we added another 18 into the mix, we were fed reasonably quickly. Some have chosen a child's roast, which included an ice cream dessert. So we decided to split the return in dessert and no dessert groups.

 

The Fox

As the towpath was very muddy in places I decided to head back to Bushey all by road. It was roughly 10 miles back to tea at Bushey. But on the way, people turned for home at different intervals. When I got to Bushey there was just Liz and I left in my group, We both decided to head directly home.

 

The Canal at Norwood Green

Simon led the ice cream dessert group and a few of them stopped for tea in Syon Park. Not the best day on the bike but we had a good crowd, it was nice to have such a big audience while mending a puncture.

Thank you to all who joined the ride and a special thanks to Simon for leading the second group and Dave etc for backmarking.

Tony..