Sunday, 18 October 2015
Ray writes: There were only four of us out this afternoon: the regulars me, Simon and John E, and occasional Sunday rider Peter. No-one had volunteered to lead this week's ride, so John and I came up with something between us.
We took the familiar route down Barton Road to Haslingfield and over Chapel Hill to Barrington, then Orwell and through the grounds of Wimpole Hall to Arrington. We continued up the hill to Croydon and East Hatley. John swore there was a left turn that would take us to Potton without going through Gamlingay, but I couldn't see a surfaced road on the map to we hit the outskirts of Gamlingay before turning south-west for Potton.
As we came into Potton, John pointed out a turning to the left that was apparently the other end of the road he'd suggested. We arrived at the Coach House a few minutes before 4pm and enjoyed some excellent cakes. I had a closer look at the map and saw that the road John had pointed out joined a track going north through Cockayne Hatley, so we decided to check this out on the way back.
This turned out to be a mostly gravelled track, a bit rough with a grassy section in the middle. It was a pleasant alternative to the B-road, but probably best avoided if there had been a lot of rain.
We retraced about 100m of our outward route before turning north towards the Gransdens. Coming into Little Gransden, we took a right turn up to the windmill, which I had never seen before. From there, it was Great Gransden, Caxton and Bourn. We took the back road through Toft, past the church, then headed north to Hardwick to avoid a repeat of the Barton Road.
Peter headed straight down Madingley Road, but the rest of us took the footpath through Coton to Grange Road, where we went our separate ways. I arrived home at 6.45pm having cycled
48 miles.
Ray Miller
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GPS track (GPX).