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NEWARK NOTES from the SecretaryFebruary 2007 - In with The New By the time anyone reads this, the weather will hopefully be improving, but the new year started wet and windy; well, anyone would have thought it was January. All "official" rides on the first weekend of the year were rained off, though I did manage a half-hearted run to Gunthorpe on the Sunday, no doubt in the hope that the wind would help me home. Colin and I went little further the following week, braving a strong south-westerly for a run to Calverton and other villages in that area. Unlike the last time we'd ventured into that area, the navigation part went pretty much as planned. The winds persisted the next weekend, too, and although I'd hoped to go to the Wassailing at Brandy Wharf, I decided that discretion was the best part of valour and I didn't want to be riding 40 miles into a headwind after sampling the delights of the fermented apple. Nobody tried to persuade me otherwise, which was perhaps a pity because wind apart, it wasn't a bad day. But we'd been in 2006 and, maybe next year… As I've commented before, the Saturday easy ride is where the action really is, and I joined 13 others the last weekend of January. The decided direction was north west, and faced with the choice between Rufford Abbey or Tesco's at Ollerton, we naturally plumped for Tesco's. I suppose the café was cheaper than Rufford. On the way back, the path across the old colliery site was being dug up, and the diversion was across a quagmire of unsurfaced tracks, something ride leaders always seem to find after I've cleaned my bike. Cafes were on our mind too, that Sunday as we headed for Folkingham. The village usually has at least one café; in the past it's supported two or more for some obscure reason, but the last few times we've been out in that direction it has been in a different building. This time was no exception, the corner shop having reverted to being a corner shop, and a new café having opened in the chocolate shop in what was once the Whipping Post pub. As The Greyhound in the village has been boarded up for some time now, we noted that the village also appeared to be down to one pub, unless there are others in side streets. But then perhaps the next time I visit, the corner shop will be a pub and….perhaps not… It was fine enough the next weekend for the Saturday ride to sit outside for their tea stop in Fulbeck, even if a dozen cyclists turning up at once did temporarily overwhelm the catering at the craft centre. Colin and I ventured to the semi wooded area north of Gainsborough on Sunday. Although it is obviously well visited, it still seems to exude the atmosphere of a Lincolnshire version of "Deliverance". (but then, so do some parts of the fens…) This time, at least, we lived to tell the tale. Two weeks later, the Saturday ride found the café at Navenby, one of our favourite stops, under new management, and closed, hopefully only for refurbishment. The gang were forced to go to the pub next door (Oh the hardship) and found the cafe proprieter now working in the eatery part of the pub. Severe restraint was observed and all members of the group drank tea (in a pub, really, true!) The next day, Colin and I rode to Bardney and then back into Lincoln along the Sustrans path on the old railway, which had stopped at the Witham bridge the last time we'd ridden it. What could potentially be a rather boring route through the fens benefits from the proximity of the Witham to provide extra interest. And not having seen them before I was rather taken by the scrap iron cows near Washingborough. To close the month, the Saturday ride made yet another trip to Gunthorpe, which went without incident, by all accounts. Sunday didn't seem to happen at all (organised cycling-wise) due to an unpromising weather forecast among other things. The forecast for this weekend looks little better, hopefully it will be wrong….
Mike Graham Page updated 03/03/2007 |