Sunshine, rabbits and bacon

For the last two years we have used the September ride as a gentle introductory ride, out to Nets cafe using the Greenway and Burton March route.  It is a flat 11 miles and mostly off road.

Managed to forget my camera, don't know why everyone cheered!  But these days your phone doubles up well, and the ride is such a straightforward one it does not lend itself to many pics.  I was riding with a couple of new ladies - one has taken about a year to 'pluck up the courage' and join us.  I did reassure her that quite a lot of people do take a long time from first contact to first ride; and there is nothing I can say to change that - although without fail once they do come out, they love it!

This year we had twenty riders, with our largest age gap to date of 75 years between our Octegenarian and a lady who brought her daughter age 7!  The youngest ever fab lady rider managed 11 miles altogether, great as her furthest before that was 6 miles!  When she is a bit older hopefully she can join us more regularly; but I think you need to be able to comfortably cover about twenty miles to come on the rides.

We arranged to meet up at the turn off; and I arrived with 12 waiting (this was good as my sums calculated 7 behind, plus me!)  I assured them we were all fine - there had been one puncture early on and the two new ladies were a bit slower but steady.  As I waited I could hear a donkey in the woods.  as you do!

We had had heavy rain in the morning but it had cleared by the time we met.  One or two light showers was the worst we had, which is why the Greenway looks so wet.  The sun did come out as the morning progressed.  No photo at the cafe - by now I was in 'morning-after-need-cooked-breakfast-and-a-coffee' mode, and the only spare seat was with another ladies group - Carol and a couple of Breeze ladies.

I headed back at the end of the group, rounding up the two newbies as it started to get a bit complicated by the industrial estate.  One mentioned she would never have thought to carry on through the estate coming out, even though it is well signposted.  Hopefully it is the first of many new cafes she will visit with us!

View across the Marsh bulrushes
to the Flint Bridge at Connah's Quay

View back to blue skies at the sandstone
outcrop at Burton Point