Autumn Road Run Sunday 1st November

As twenty five or more bikes gathered at Whatstandwell, our leader Graham turned up in his car! He had hurt his foot badly trying to get his bike out but was determined not to let us down. The initial fog and mist cleared and the sun peeped out. This gave us beautiful views of the autumn leaves across the Derwent Valley while we climbed up towards Wirksworth Moor. Although I did think that at one junction, the fog was back but it was just Chris moving off from his junction on his MZ!

After meeting road works in Ashbourne, we rode through the villages of Clifton and Norbury, where on Sides Lane we had the absolute pleasure of riding through a “tunnel” formed by the overhanging branches. All the shades of autumn were contained in the leaves of the various trees and it was like riding through a beautiful Kaleidoscope leading Chris to comment that the run should be re-named as the Autumn LEAVES Run After passing through Rocester, we turned off for a short visit to the ruins of Croxden Abbey. Moving on, the sun began to fade and the cloud cover meant that it was quite chilly. After Tean we went through Cheadle, where we were held up by not only more roadworks but also a convoy of no less than FIVE horse drawn carts. Once we were clear, the roads opened up a little to emerge at Froghall Station, on the Churnet Valley Heritage Railway.

Turning North, we went on to Ipstones, Onecote and Warslow to turn into The Tea Junction at Hulme End.

Unfortunately, the cloud turned to light rain and Graham rightly took the decision to make the journey home as short as possible, leading us through Hartington, down the Via Gellia to Cromford to finish at The Homesford Cottage.