OGIL ride report 17th May 2023
A very brief report this week, as I have just realised it’s Tuesday so I had better cobble something together sharpish otherwise I will incur the wrath of our Illustrious Leader when he returns from swanning about on the Danube. As it has been nearly a week since the ride my powers of recall may be a little lacking, although I do have the route on Strava so at least that will be roughly right.
The weather conditions were near perfect – sunny and barely a wiff of wind. I was expecting a massive turnout, so it was a little surprising that only seven(?) of us ended up milling about at TOP. I was admiring Jan’s new BMC so probably missed the debate about destination, but we set off in the direction of Gweek. I thought someone said something about Poldhu. We turned right at Brill to take us onto four mile hill, as we sometimes do, but Ian took us down the lane to Treloquithack. This evinced rather mixed comments ranging from “…that was interesting” to “…that was *****” – just because it was a bit hilly, potholed and gritty! We turned right and then across the A394 to Wendron, and then intriguingly the wrong way down muddy lane (not at all muddy, but a lot of grit and sand). Round the Helston by-pass and past Culdrose, but then an excursion off towards Gunwalloe and back up to the main road. This was all very picturesque and admittedly nicer than barrelling along the main road, but the hills, the hills….
Back on familiar territory we turned off the main Lizard road as if we were heading for Poldhu. However, at Cury White Cross we turned left to Cury Cross Lanes – apparently we were headed for Trevassack Lake after all. Nobody seemed bothered that the plan had changed (if indeed it had). The wind was taken out of our sails slightly when, arriving at the entrance to the lake, we were met by a lady with a clipboard who announced that the place was closed to the public as they were expecting a VIP visitor. When pressed, she admitted it was royalty, and when pressed further she confessed that it was none other than Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh. The accompanying high security detail (one bored-looking bobby) observed the scene impassively, despite the fact that disclosing the identity of the visitor was possibly a breach of the Official Secrets Act. Apparently the Duchess of Edinburgh was there to unveil a plaque celebrating 25 years of the Children’s Sailing Trust which is based at the lake.
We briefly considered hanging around to watch, but as we had no flags with us and we were all gasping for our morning coffee, it was decided to press on to the Gweek boatyard cafe.
We simply reversed out normal route through Trelowarren and down Gweek Drive to the boatyard. Having lost Sylvia at Helston on the way here (exhausted after recently having arrived back from Yorkshire), the remaining six settled down to excellent food and coffee/tea. The main topic of conversation was Jan’s imminent half-ironman, to be followed (all things being well) with a full ironman. This was topped with Sam’s description of the event he has entered in the Southwest Strongest Man competition next month. All a bit intense for me – I just like to ride my bike a bit.
We returned via four mile hill, Longdowns and, for the Falmouth lot, the Donkey Sanctuary.
A slightly confusing ride, being back to front and all, but nice to be out in fine weather and with a good coffee stop. About 67 km for me.