Larkling: Shipbrookhill
A large turnout on a rare break in the winter weather.
As I rolled into the park there were 8 more Larklings and a swathe of Larks waiting, with more still arriving before we left. We also picked up Phil after a few miles, so we had 11 in all, I think. Jim and Simon confirmed that attendances had been rather low over the last few weeks, hardly surprising given the weather.
Looking back through the archives it appears this was in fact my first club ride since September!? Where does the time go? Life has been getting in the way.
We headed out onto the quiet but very mucky lanes through: Gawsworth, Marton, Goostrey, Swan Green and Lach Dennis.
Until today I didn’t know where Shipbrookhill was, so was expecting something unusual, but as we pulled in for lunch I could see it was Riverside Organic Farm. I had always thought it was Davenham.
The cafe was remarkably quiet, especially considering the farm was selling Christmas trees. I had the Breakfast Brioche - the bacon was immense and I didn’t have to do any rind picking! The Larks never turned up so perhaps they’d had mechanicals? Or they were so fast they’d gone before we arrived?
As we left there were two guinea fowl wandering around and I finally saw the guinea pigs which normally dart into their tunnels as soon as you approach.
We rode back to Swan Green and through The Peovers. Stuart left us around Goostrey. We had the usual brief rest at Siddington crossroads where the group split. One group returned via Redesmere, Jim headed off to Wilmslow, myself and the other three returned via Pexhill. Simon (unplugged) set quite a pace on the climb and I had to dig deep to hold the wheel. At Broken X his heart rate monitor displayed an outrageous 205bpm! That can’t be right… can it?
A very pleasant relaxing ride in unusually decent conditions. I really should do more of this.
Right, jet wash time :(
Ride safe kids.
Ian