Sunday, 16 October 2011
Nigel writes: I joined today's all-day ride just for the morning. The day started clear and sunny, but quite cold - a lovely morning but an intimation of cold days to come. Averil was our leader today, and she led our group of seven riders north into the centre of Cambridge and then west over the river.
We weaved our way through West Cambridge, picked up Paul in Storeys Way, and continued up to Huntingdon Road which we followed as far as the turn to Girton. We cycled through Girton and on to Oakington, where we joined the Busway Cycleway for a short distance. Ahead of us on the cycleway we found Bob, who joined us.
After riding along the cycleway for a couple of miles we reached the B1050 which we joined and followed through Willingham and all the way to Earith. This was a relatively busy road but there was nothing we could do to avoid it as Earith offers the only crossing point of the Ouse between Ely and St Ives.
At Earith we turned west onto the A1123 which we followed for about a mile as far as Bluntisham (below).
At Bluntisham we turned off the main road onto a minor road which took us west to the Raptor Foundation near Woodhurst. This is a specialist wildlife park for birds of prey, with a cafe that was today's designated morning coffee stop.
This was the first time the club had visited this place, and I am pleased to report that the coffee was very good and the cakes large and inexpensive. Already in the cafe we found four further club members.
After coffee the the main group led by Aveil continued to lunch in West Perry beside Grafham Water, and afternoon tea in Caxton. With the sun still shining brightly in a clear sky it had warmed up considerably. However I needed to return back to Cambridge and so four of us did so via St Ives, Fenstanton, Fen Drayton and the Busway Cycleway. I was home by 1.15pm, having cycled
42 miles.
View this GPS track on a larger map
1 comments from old website
Sunday 16th Oct 2011 at 8.51pm
"and afternoon tea in Caxton"
There were 9 for tea at Caxton, but we didn't see any of the day run.