Glorious sunshine, a light breeze, and unseasonably warm temperatures. All features missing from today's ride, which was cold, very wet, and very windy. A met office weather warning for strong gales was in place all day, and the precipitation varied between drizzle and torrential showers.

Not surprising that only three of us met at the start point. Perhaps more surprising was that any of us met at all!

I led Alan and Steve through the back streets of Bognor; in an effort to "tack" against the strong winds we did a tour of back alleys out to Aldwick, where we took the Lower Bognor Road. Both Alan and Steve professed not to know where they were at some points, despite both being long term Bognor residents. So objective achieved!

From the Lower Bognor Road we took the off road concrete tracks at Butterlees Farm (again unknown to both Steve and Alan) to emerge at Runcton, then up Green Lane and across the old airfield at Merston.  I noticed a usually locked gate was unlocked, so instead of heading back out and on to the cycletrack, we took the "quieter" route through the oher part of Green Lane, re-joining the tarmac at the Kings Head. A short sprint found us at the Brick Kiln Nursery, for a welcome cuppa.

The return route was back via Colworth, and pretty uneventful except that going round the narrowest part of the Colworth loop we found the road blocked by a large farm lorry which had misjudged the conditions and put 6 wheels or so in the ditch at the side of the lane. A large contingent from Westbourne Motors breakdown Service had just hauled the lorry back on to the road and it was ready to resume its journey. We were able to negotiate around the side of all this commotion and went on just ahead of the breakdown convoy, which was leaving the scene. Unfortunately weather conditions were not conducive to photos.... so there isn't one.

Back at Bersted, I found a newly opened route around the new estate that avoids the mud bath of Berry Lane but still brings you out (via the lake) to North Bersted Street. Here we went our separate ways, and I arrived back in Bognor in time for the Christmas lights switch on ceremony. At least, I would have arrived in time but for the fact that it had been cancelled due to the weather conditions; unfortunate in that it wasn't actually raining, nor especially windy, aat the time it should have taken place. I did bump into the town centre manager who told me some lights had come down in the wind, but they were still able to turn on the snow-blowers, which made the town quite festive.  This picture shows the lights came on anyway, but the only bike around was Macari's "Stop me and Buy one" machine!

Graham 

Posted by RideLeader at 21:53 GMT

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