If we thought the rain might put people off we were mistaken; despite the absence of regulars on several adventures of their own, we had thirteen turn up at Nonsuch Mansion. Trouble was, we had only two leaders so the choice on offer was limited to two. Steve W had come all the way back from South West Iberia to lead a ride (where else with Steve?) up Box Hill. My original intention had been to follow the programme and offer a short ride to Merton up the route perfected by the (absent) Diane but I have never ridden that, and though Diane was kind enough to send Maggie the gpx route I am not confident about leading a route I have not recced and when one of the punters suggested Eight on the River at Molesey I jumped at the chance, and that was where we went despite having one Nonsuch debutante and one returnee from long term injury. Stuart, Ian and Rob went with Steve and that left me with nine.
We had to take a detour around the path works in Nonsuch Park but other than that it all went well at a steady Saturday short ride pace until Sharon had a puncture at the top of Ditton Hill, a fact of which I was informed only after we had got well past the bottom. I needed the hill practice. In fact, Sharon's tyre, re-inflated, held out until the Rowing Club. Short staffed, slow (but pleasant) service and we had to sit outside because they were closing. Still, outside on the terrace overlooking the river on a muggy day with a hot cup of tea and a nice cake was not at all unpleasant.
Despite two offers of repair by extraordinarily handsome men, Sharon opted to cycle to Balfes in Kingston to have her inner tube replaced, so there are only eight of us in the picture, taken by a press-ganged passer-by.
We made our way home by the Weston Green - Surbiton route and peeled off one by one as folk felt confident that they knew where they were.
A decent ride, nearly 50 Km door to door for Maggie and me, not too hot, not too wet.
Thanks everyone for your company.
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