Saturday, 18 July 2009
Our Saturday morning rides are intended to be particularly suitable for newcomers, and in CTC parlance are referred to as "invitation" rides. Mike Stapleton writes: We had a really good invitation ride this Saturday: all the more surprising in that the weather had been wet and was still cool and breezy at the start.
We had a total of eight riders today: three new riders and five regulars. We rode out to Burwash Manor in Barton, which by the time we arrived was bathed in sunshine. We had coffee at the café and then visited the shops. (One of us bought a bottle of wine at the wine shop at the back of the café.)
After coffee we carried on towards Haslingfield, passing the Radio Telescope on the way. My son, when he was young, always refered to the aerial dishes as Planet Plates. Here is one of them:
We soon reached Haslingfield, where we stopped to check out the sundial in the grass. This is not obvious and, unless it is pointed out, you would miss it. We had one of our new riders checking it out. It even has compensation for the months of the year. We had to wait a little while for the sun to come out.
We returned to Cambridge via the Shelfords and the DNA path, arriving back at Addenbrookes at 12.30pm. It had been a very relaxed ride which met with the approval of all the riders. This has been one of the best invitation rides we have had, and we hope it leads to some of the new riders joining us on our regular rides.
Mike Stapleton.