Easy riding into February

We have had a busy start to February with two pop up Thursday morning rides, as well as the two scheduled Sunday easy rides. Two new cafes have been sampled and added to our rota.

The first Thursday of February saw 8 of us tackling a ride up Artist’s Lane to the Wizard tea room, where several dogs took great interest in us, and our food. The following Sunday we had a ride from Wilmslow to the Snowdrop cafe at Grasslands, reopened after the winter break. It was a chilly day and Simon R’s heated gloves ran out of charge well before the cafe. His hands were so cold that Griff and Jim had to help him with some hand holding in the cafe queue. Caroline met us in the cafe, making 9 of us. On the ride back Jim punctured near David Lewis, by that stage several of the group had peeled off towards Macclesfield. The sun came out, so we had a pleasant stop, listening to a local woodpecker, whilst Griff and Jim sorted the puncture relatively quickly.

Last Thursday 9 of us turned up for a pop-up ride to a new cafe, Tatton Perk, at Booths Hall, just outside Knutsford. I had come up with a devious route doing some of the usual lanes and tracks in a different order whilst avoiding anything too muddy. The cafe was the perfect size for our group and they were pleased to see us, as a closed path had reduced their usual throughput of walkers. The coffee and food were good, so we will definitely be back (they are only open weekdays though).

Today’s ride was from Macclesfield to a new cafe at Higher Farm, Byley. They used to have an outdoor van cafe there ’Cobbies’, but now have a dedicated cabin type indoor cafe with seating for over 20. 12 of us took a carefully planned route out via Brereton Green and Middlewich, avoiding as much of the main roads as possible. We set off from Siddington in two groups, but my group kept catching the larger group, so we joined forces. The service at the cafe was quick, the food was good and the prices were very reasonable. We took a shorter route back via Twemlow Lane, Goostrey and Jodrell Bank.

Next Sunday is the Circuit of the Edge, so John will be leading the shorter and steadier paced version of this, including a cafe stop in Alderley Edge, which is where I will start from.

Katherine

News