Sunday 11th December, 2016 – CTC Cornwall Xmas ride and lunch; balmy December sun (and fog); mouthwatering mince pies from Inkie’s at Golitha; staggering Siblyback views; and full festive fare at The Victoria

A 21 mile circular route from Liskeard with 11 starters and four more friends joining  us at the lunch venue.  A thick fog as we started and finished this ride made it particularly atmospheric and a great back drop to our exchanges as we took the opportunity to catch up with group members not seen for a little while.

Both Mike and Ian W had had collisions with other road users during the previous fortnight and were coping with the consequences.  Lessons for us all in terms of watching for cars emerging from driveways; and for cyclists with disc brakes, if we are following on a bike with calipers – and also on the merits of settling a claim quickly to avoid the hassle of an ongoing dispute.

With the Spring in mind, there was also some talk of new bicycles – Dave Ball having made the first move with the fairly lame excuse, I thought, of needing to sell two other bicycles and to buy a new one in order to create a bit more space  in his garage!!

As the fog began to clear we pulled into our coffee stop with Inkie’s at Golitha Falls.  Our promised large lunch was not quite enough to prevent most of us taking advantage of the goodies on offer, from delicious bacon baps to homemade mince pies and watching the many birds by the river there, still busy at this time of year.

While a splinter group set off on a bit of a detour, the rest of us rode round to Siblyback and took the lakeside anti-clockwise path – the lake looking staggeringly beautiful – if very low –  in the now full sunshine.  Leaving the lake, through Commonmoor and on up to Darite, Crows Nest and Foredown – incredible views in the balmy sunshine – and then down through Pensilva to the Victoria where we met up with Connie, Steve, Mike and Andy – so nice to see them all.  Great too to share some non cycling time with our friends as we tucked into a full range of Christmas fare at this pub.

The fog had returned for our ride back down the hill to Liskeard, making it sensible that we used a route which avoided the faster traffic of the main roads.

A big thank you to David for organising yet another great Christmas get-together.

 

 

 

 

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