Simon Says

A message from Simon said “Puker von Pulla”. I couldn’t find that on Google maps, but he wasn’t at the other place when Kath, John, Ian, Phil1, Richard 2, Mike (the KOM Kid) and myself arrived. Fred, Phil3, Keith and Mike 2 were waiting. John had an assignation at St Agnes planned, with a younger woman, so we decided to play gooseberry and chose the Cuckoo Café, in the Miners & Mechanics Institute as a suitable destination. With Ian leading the way, and Kath cracking the whip whenever a couple of OGIL showed a tendency to stop and break into conversation we made good timing. Our route took us to Pull Cross and lo and behold, who should we see, setting out for a hike up Carn Marth – Our Simon. Was it the shock of seeing us, or what, but he did look pale!

In honour of Mike’s recent scaling of Mont Ventoux we managed to find most of the hills along the way, including the left turn in Twelveheads, and the right turn in Mount Hawke, down and up past the Cricket Club. He wasn’t very grateful. Ian even turned up the sharp rise just after Gwennap, but I was the only one who followed. The others met up, briefly, with Lance and Big Bob, making their way across to Portreath.

Although we were eleven in number, a slightly younger gathering of cyclists at the café outnumbered us. With impeccable manners, the group of children from the St Agnes Primary school, who had just completed, and passed, their Cycling Proficiency Test and were now enjoying a celebratory ice cream, moved over to allow us OGIL have their seats. The café is run by the community and doesn’t “do” hot food but the cake was good, and reasonable, even if the service was a little slow.

Leaving the village at Peterville we missed the first turn to Goonbell but took the next right and onwards towards Chiverton. After a little conflab it was back across to the ATV Centre at Blackwater, Scorrier, Lanner Hill and, for a change, around the lake and up one more hill to Carnkie. It all came to just under 46 miles for me. Dean

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