Ride to Casterton Golf Club (or maybe not!!) via Silverdale Golf Club, Sunday 11th November 2018

Will it or won’t it? That was the question. Well, on the way to the start it wasn’t, but arriving at the start it was, raining that is. The longer we talked about it the heavier it got, so we thought we’d better set off! 6 of us, including 2 new welcome participants, Ian for his second ride and Mick for his first ride, set off towards Kellet Lane, but 5 only actually turned up Kellet Lane, Anne deciding to head to The Red Door Café in Halton instead. We persevered up Kellet Lane to Nether Kellet and up to the Carnforth turn where the group were given the opportunity to take a short cut to Carnforth. The option was unanimously declined and we stoically carried on to Over Kellet and down through Carnforth, Warton and the 3 Yealands. Having passed through Yealand Storrs, we paused to decide the way forward. Unanimously, once again, we decided to carry on as intended, so up the hill it was! Thrang End, Gait Burrows and Waterslack led onto Silverdale Golf Club where the first catering disaster of the day befell us! No Scones! We were, however, offered several good choices from the breakfast menu. We joined the other 6 riders waiting for us in the very plush golf club lounge, and enjoyed our food. As we dined, the rain continued to fall, but departure signalled lighter rain. Ken, who was either too wet from his morning ride or over sausaged from his breakfast, was determined to return home and couldn’t be persuaded to change his mind.

So 7 of us left Silverdale and within a couple of miles the rain stopped, and, as it turned out, didn’t rain again for rest of the day, in fact good visibility and a little sunshine now prevailed. We headed past Leighton Moss and back to Yealand Storrs, taking the left turn to Burton in Lonsdale. We climbed the long hill and onto Hutton Roof, where we took the right turn taking us through High and Low Biggins and Kirkby Lonsdale, and over Devil’s Bridge (more about that later!), taking the road to Casterton. We arrived at the Golf Club and the second catering disaster of the day befell us! No chef, off sick, so no lunch at Casterton. We decided to head back to Kirkby Lonsdale, crossing Devil’s Bridge on the way. We found our way to the bakery and were lucky to find 2 adjacent tables free. We were quickly served with excellent fayre and took our time in the welcoming atmosphere.

We said goodbye to Miles and the 6 of us set off back across Devil’s Bridge (again!!) crossing the main road, and up the narrow path past the caravan site and onto the Roman Road towards the A65. We crossed the A65 and took the narrow road to Overtown and Nether Burrow carrying our bikes across the narrow bridge on the way. We passed through Tunstall and took the Wrayton turn bringing us down to Wennington and onto Wray. We all decided to stick together and took the shortest way, picking up the cycle track to take us home.

Writer’s cramp, tired legs, but no wet clothes to dry out and good memories of a day which started badly, got worse, but in the end was extremely entertaining with the majority of the day’s weather excellent and the catering shortcomings being overcome with great success. 50 miles and 3700 feet of ascent.

Neil Westwell