Ride to Flowerland, Iver - Sunday 31 May

'Twas the last day of spring, and fourteen of us gathered outside the cafe at Osterley Park to venture into the unknown with a ride designed by Tony H.   It was good to see Diane with her "grand-dog" and especially pleasing to see David J back on the bike, just joining us for 11s today.

I was leading - I had done a recce last weekend but a lot has happened since then, so I was a bit vague about the route.   Even after doing the ride, we were all still a bit vague about where we had been.   Anyway, we organised in two groups, Jennie leading the second group and with Steph and Bernard back-marking, and set off.   

The organisation seemed to work well, and there were a lot of positive comments about the route, such as "Where are we?", "I've never been here before", and "We're in Datchet?  No!".  We'd start along a familiar road, and then take an unexpected turning and be completely lost for a while in a cycle paths or lanes, taking a few turns here and there, emerging disorientated after a few miles somewhere completely different but recognisable.  For the record, we went to Norwood Green, Heston, Cranford Park, Hayes, Dawley, Colham Green, Pield Heath, Cowley and Iver, which just illustrates how far off the beaten track we were.

Urban jungle

Pesky gates

Hmm, that looks familiar

Ah, we might be in ... where was it?

Several people had never been to Flowerland garden centre in Iver before, and it was more like JungleLand when we went in; packed with tropical vegetation.   As we were having our lunch, we were approached by a lady called Lilian from the Uxbridge Loiterers cycling group, who knew Tony H and asked me to say hello to Tony from her.   Hello Tony!    We were all served quite quickly once we found the cafe, and we set off again for Hampton Court.

JungleLand

We were probably on more familiar ground in the afternoon, but even so Tony managed to find plenty of roads we'd never travelled on before, and an impressive and unexpected view of Windsor Castle as we left Slough on a long straight road heading straight towards the castle.  It's almost as if someone had planned it.  Another interesting route back via Langley, Slough, Datchet, Poyle, Stanwell and Snakey Lane to a riverside tea at Hampton Court lock.

Castle in the distance

It's the job of ride leader to be aware of how the group interacts with traffic for the safety of the group, and to ensure we try to leave a good impression with other road users.  I noticed that a couple of times when we stopped for people to catch up, a few of the group stopped where they were obstructing the traffic, once on quite a busy blind corner in Bangors Road.   This led to a big queue of traffic trying to get past, and could have been avoided if we had all got off the road when we stopped.  I would encourage everyone to familiarise themselves with the Group Riding Guidelines.   Group riding skills are a bit different to individual riding skills and we can sometimes forget their importance.

Many thanks to everyone in the group for your good company on an enjoyable day out, and for your photos.   Special thanks to Tony H for the route, Jennie for leading the second group and to Steph and Bernard for back marking.