In the absence of Raymond, this Friday’s ride was organised by top cat ‘Jenks’. “Meet at Walkington pond 10am for ride ‘over the hills and not too far away'”. Nine ‘cats’ arrived to bask in the morning sunshine in the bus shelter by the pond. Eventually it was time to ‘play’ and the ‘clowder’ set off in search of the ‘fiddle’.
To begin the days adventure, the ‘cats’ sidled up Kirk Lane in search of the high ground at the top of Bluestone Bottom. Continuing upwards, the ‘cats’ reached High Hunsley along Westoby Lane. Next up was a super wizz down into North Newbald putting smiles on the faces of the ‘cats’ as they ‘creamed’ it downhill. Soon it was time to start climbing again as the group set off to tackle Stoneknowle Hill.
After reaching High Gardham there was a brief “paws” as the ‘cats’ took time to admire the view before “licking” downhill to Low Gardham towards Etton. It was back to climbing as we turned towards Holme-on-the-Wolds, fortunately assisted by a slight following wind. The final leg saw the ‘cats’ sidling along the Middleton road before turning into the wind towards Goodmanham and the Fiddle Drill Cafe.
Suitably refreshed, the ‘cats’ began to return home. With the wind now behind, progress was relatively swift as they ‘slinked’ (is that a word?) along the Spring road. On reaching Etton West wood DaveH decided to ‘pounce’ and came ‘screeching’ past everyone like he was a cat in chase of a mouse. Caught up in the fervour of the chase, SteveG jumped on his tail following him like a GC contender protecting his time gap.
As we regrouped, Matt noted we were still one cat short. “Where’s Jonathan?” he asked. “Perhaps he’s got ‘stranded'” suggested one cat ‘amewsingly’. Eventually we realised he hadn’t left the cafe with us when someone suggested he’d gone to the loo while we’d set off. After waiting a while with no sign of him, Brian decided to return in search. As the rest waited and waited we began to think we’d lost Brian as well. With the hot sun burning down we decided it was too hot to hang around and continued on home through Etton and Cherry Burton.