Sunday morning dawned with a poke in the ribs. "Aren't you supposed to be on a ride today?" "Ugh! What time is it?" "9:43" Oops - supposed to be at Poplar 2000 before 11am. Jump out of bed, open the curtains. Bright sunshine with frost on the lawn. Oh well, can't have everything. So, a quick breakfast, grab my cold weather gear, find the dark visor and I'm off with brand new tyres on damp roads.

I arrive at the starting point at about 10:50 - not too bad considering everything - to find about 10 bikes already there. So, we chat for a while until I get a call from Bob - "Every so sorry, I didn't know the M56 was closed; I'll be about 10 minutes". This from a man who lives about 8 miles away. We wait for a while and eventually he turns up. OK - everyone here - wagons roll. And off we go.

I'd planned a decent route avoiding most of the towns and it worked well. We found a few cars, but not too many. The roads were dry by this time and we made good progress. 12 bikes and the buddy system worked perfectly. By about 12:45 we were heading up the last road to the Ponderosa cafe when Paul and Mandy shot by. They'd been in Caernarfon and were intending on meeting us there. So that was good timing.

A chat in the sunshine and then some lunch. The steak and kidney pie was particularly good and was enjoyed by more than one of us (Geoff said he only had a light salad, of course). Then, outside to plan the next phase of the ride. We were going to have a small ride back over to Liverpool and then home, but the weather was so nice it seemed a shame to stop. So, instead, most of us (Jean, Pam and Paul headed off home) rode over to Whitchurch via some decent back roads to another cafe for some tea. Yes, the Manhoc standard of not going too far without a brew. Once that was done, we headed over to Bobs place where I picked up a small case of wine, more tea was consumed and we then headed homewards.

A great day out and one which we should try and repeat for next year. This was the route we did:

Some piccies to keep you amused - from Jean, Keith and myself.