Blog posts

Leader Liz Palethorpe writes…

It was very difficult to keep track of the participants, but here goes!

Nine people turned up at the Maltings: Liz, Marion, Carol, Angela and Dave, John, Dave, Jonathan and “Million Mile Russ”. On hearing that the coffee stop was at Selborne, Russ immediately decided he would make his own (circuitous) way there. We picked up Roger as we went through Rowledge thereby allowing him an extra half hour in bed. As we got going again one of the riders stopped without warning to pick something up he had spotted in the road, Disc Brake Dave stopped OK, but John cannoned into him and deposited him (Dave) in a heap in the middle of the road. As nobody at the front had noticed this circus act, the front group rode on.

Liz then decided to deviate from the route worked out with Roger and rode through Alice Holt Forest leaving five of us including Roger to stick to the agreed route.

As we rode into Sleaford we picked up a guest who had been patiently waiting by the roadside on the agreed route. We crossed the main road at Sleaford and rode via Kingsley and Oakhanger to Selborne where John Sadler was spotted lurking near the Queens Hotel, having decided to ride out to coffee and then go home.  He disappeared after coffee together with Angela and Dave who had ridden in from Lightwater to the start and Russ who obviously did not fancy the climb up to the “Pub With No Name” at Colemore (or perhaps it was not far enough).

After the coffee stop we went through Farringdon, then up Farringdon Hill, turned left, dropped down on to the A32, crossed over the main road and rode up through Colemore, stopping to admire the church on the way, and then on to the pub where there was a gathering of vintage cars in the car park: two Frazer Nashes, a Bugatti, an Austin Healey 3000 and an Austin “Chummy”. Propping up the bar was Sue Thorne who had driven out to the pub to meet us.

After lunch the ride back went through East Tisted, Selbourne, Blackmoor, Whitehill, Standford, Lindford, Frensham, Shortfield and back to Farnham. To summarise, We started with nine, lost one immediately, picked up two more en route and another at coffee, lost four after the coffee stop, picked up another at lunch and got back with six, having lost two more in Frensham!