Ride report

Our thanks to James Dawton, our Rides Secretary, for organising this weekend away. Here is his report.

If any pub land lord reads this, please note two persons in attendance should pay for their lunches before serving, not after….

Six met in Broad St, all having arrived in a deluge, and we picked up Sue at Wolvercote roundabout on our way out of town. Wet to coffee at Aston pottery, but pretty much dry there after. After lunch in Lechlade a scenic route via small lanes got us to the campsite at Castle Eaton, with Natasha moving on to her B+B in near by Kempsford Manor. En route 2 riders were mortified to discover they had not paid for their lunch, and even more mystified that all the others had paid for their lunch. Just to add confusion, one had paid for their drink, but not lunch, the other had not paid for either! A plan was hatched to phone over the weekend and pay by card over the phone. Two campers and Natasha ate in the nearby pub, the remainder cooking on the campsite – 2 sharing the still unpaid for lasagne doggy bagged from lunch – it was too large to finish in 1 go. We then joined the others in the pub for a drink, getting back just before the night’s rain set in.

Sunday dawned cool, but dry, and the campers were joined by Natasha from the manor, and Steve who had driven over for the day. Quiet lanes saw us arrive in Cirencester for coffee, local knowledge directed us to a closed cafe, but Wantage knowledge took us to a cafe with a victoria sponge cake (along with others) the like of which we’d never seen before, such was its scale an oozy bits.
More quiet lanes, sun and the last manned level crossing in the country (to be automated later in the year) took us to Malmsbury. An excellent lunch was had in a cafe, its only let down was no phone signal to phone to pay for 2 certain lunches from the day before.

In the afternoon we had an unsuccessful search in Garsdon church yard for a Washington family early stars and stripes sybol (a few about the country apparently), but it was locked in the church. A photographic stop at a disused canal lock was the last stop on the way back.

Dinner was had by all in the local pub, again no phone signal on the guilty parties phones to pay for certain lunches. However, Dave’s phone had a signal, so he offered to phone “Hello, we had lunch at you pub yesterday, and 2 friends forgot to pay” is how the call started, after a bit of passing the phone round, all was paid for. Then we came to pay, some paid when they ordered, some paid after they had eaten, and 1 couldn’t remember if she had paid or not…… I went to the bar, said one person was confused about paying, was there a meal unpaid for. There was, along with 2 other meals (that infact had already had been paid for….). Fortunaletly, all was resolved (and paid for).

Sunday saw it dry until mid morning, so the campers were able to pack their kit pretty much dry. Elevenses in Shrivenham was lacking, the only option a local told us was Mc Donalds up near the A 420. All a bit horrified by the prospect, we realised it was also raining hard, and we were standing in it. Soon were were in Mc Donalds, remembering when we were last in such a place (1990’s for Ellen, 2001 in New Zealand for me). With the rain set in, we continued to the Fox and Hounds in Uffington for smooth transactioned lunch, followed by more rain all the way home.

Wet at times, drier for more times, an enjoyable weekend for all.