After a grey, cold, windy start to the day we actually got to see a sliver of blue sky and even a few palm trees as we reached the balmy shores of Barry Island during today's Chaser's jolly boy's (and girls) outing. Eight Chasers left Brackla to head towards Ewenny and everyone's favourite cheeky climb before we've had chance to warm up on Post Office Hill and onto the old Wick road before heading towards Llantwit Major and on towards Barry. We were joined early on by Nick Langley who was lurking at the side of the road in Bridgend and later on by Terry, Tony, Will John and Roy 2, who had opted to pass on the Post Office Hill route option.
We were also joined today by a couple of Amblers stepping up (Nick & Carrie) and Rick, who I thought was a newbie but who had apparently been a hard core club member between 2003 and 2011 , after which he emigrated to England to set up a business (welcome back Rick). We had an early tea and cake stop on Barry seafront before heading home via the Airport, Aberthaw, Green Dragon Lane, the A48 and the lanes. The route was a couple of miles short of the advertised distance, as I forgot to take the back lanes to Llantwit, but was still a respectable 47 miles, with a couple of Barry's cheeky hills thrown in for extra entertainment value.
Out today, at various times were:
Carrie H
Nick H
Porn Star Nick
Terry
Tony
Mal (content - he got to see a real Palm Tree)
Rich B
Rich (newbie, gusting old sweat)
Mike ( next year's hill champs will be interesting - climbs like Sherpa Tenzing on oxygen)
Roy 2
Will John
Rick
Mark P
I'm away for the next two Sunday's but hopefully one of the old sweats will post a route. See you on the 5th of February.
Mark