Chobham - Was this the first ride of spring?

By Simon L -
It certainly didn't feel like spring when we met at Syon Park for Guy's ride to Chobham.   There was still plenty of ice at the sides of the road.    No excuses but plenty of reasons today and so there were only eight of us.    Jobs, streaming colds, ventures overseas - mainly feeble reasons like that.   We missed you all.

It soon turned into a glorious sunny day, although Rachel's satnav didn't agree.  It kept telling her to turn round and go back home.   Then we discovered she'd put it on upside down (not really).    We went the normal route to Hampton Court but then suddenly turned right at the roundabout instead of going over the bridge, heading to Shepperton and Chertsey before venturing back north of the M3 for a bit, almost hitting Windlesham and then diverting to the lovely Turkish café in Chobham, which does great cheese sandwiches.   And I'm told they do excellent Turkish breakfasts too.
Back past Fairoaks airport and Addlestone and then at Weybridge we elected to go along the towpath in a referendum, with Niall the only dissenter as he didn't have mudguards.   It was a brave decision as the towpath was extremely muddy with plenty of unavoidable large puddles and lots of slippy bits.   A marathon taking place along the towpath as well, just for extra steering practice. Tea at Thyme by the River at East Molesey, which is moving a few hundred yards east to the rowing club next week.  We sat outside, partly due to the sunshine and partly due to the amount of mud we had brought with us from the towpath.  It was lovely: warm and sunny: almost spring like.    Guy was chosen for the Leader of the Day award - a very enjoyable ride.  Thankyou Guy.



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