Wednesday 17th January saw the group meeting at the Cioni Café, Cliff Parade, Penarth all aglow with excitement at the prospect of another John Cardy Away Day. The weather conditions on the preceding days had been poor and we had all been hoping that the great man’s promises would be kept, but then doesn’t John always keep his promises! A window of occasional light showers would suit us fine. A glance out of the café window showed Steepholm and Flatholm with an acceptable degree of clarity and we all felt reassured.

Now then, is Steepholm the flat one and Flatholm the steep one? Answers on a postcard please!

All present, all fed, all watered and some de-watered we were ready for the off. Down past the pier, up the hill and across to the Cardiff bay barrage only to read a notice saying that due to maintenance the barrage had been closed the previous day but, worse still it was closed that day as well. Our disappointment was obvious to all, kerbs and railings were kicked, fists were raised and John wisely took shelter behind me. Then we all felt better. Funny how a real good constructive grumble cheers up the group no end.

We made our way through the marina and towards the bridge over the Taff and the cloud began to open, not to reveal a clear blue sky but rather to release cold and wet drops of rain. We didn’t worry though because, after all, the great man had promised and, whatever you say about him he is always right.

Irritating isn’t it!

Getting to the bridge involved a few detours to admire some dead ends while John patiently consulted his map. We dutifully admired but never quite managed to agree on the attractions. Eventually we were on the bridge and admiring a large mirrored sphere, of which Des took an incredibly curious photo. I had leaned my bike against a post and rested my specs on the saddlebag so that I could take photos when a gust of wind sent my bike crashing to the floor, luckily my specs appeared undamaged and we were soon on the way to the millennium centre. Considering that we were riding in Cardiff the traffic was surprisingly light and in no time we were locking our bikes up in the vast, open area surrounding our new cultural centre.

Well some of us were it seemed, others had no time for that. The great man was off as if on a mission with Walter bounding on behind him. Panic, panic. But the more you panic, the more you fumble. One by one we charged after him not wanting to be left behind.

And then the lens fell out of my glasses.

Have you tried clicking a lens back into its frame while clutching your helmet and cycle bag, all at a canter, graceful I was not!

In through the door to see the tail end of the group charging up the stairs to the first floor. Still clutching my lens I was after them, taking the stairs two at a time, all I needed to do was sit down for a second, relieve myself of my excess baggage and mend my specs. But there didn’t seem to be anywhere to sit and everyone was milling about in a demented meleé. And then along came Colin, completely out of character playing the Good Samaritan, he grabbed my helmet and bag leaving my hands free to do the repair work. This didn’t take long but when I was finished everyone had disappeared. There we were, abandoned.

Then John appeared behind some ‘no entry’ barriers. Not so much ‘no entry’ actually – the notice said ‘No humans beyond this point today please’. Now John being acknowledged as superhuman this clearly did not apply to him, nor to his invited guests it seemed. He beckoned us through and led us through a door and down some steps into a large dark cavern. As our eyes adjusted to the light we realised that we were in the auditorium and it was truly incredible. High, high above us were the balconies, to our side were the boxes and in front of us someone was welding some framework on the stage. We stood in awe. This was truly magnificent and we should be really proud. As we were going back down the stairs it occurred to me that there must be security cameras everywhere and we must surely have been featured on an array of monitors somewhere but we were never close to being challenged. Perhaps we just looked so harmless and innocent.

What a slur on our characters!

Now do you remember that I said that some of the group had had no time for locking up their bikes? Yes, that meant that John and Walter had a valuable head start on us and were rapidly disappearing round the corner towards the Assembly building. We took the precaution of locking up John’s bike for him this time and if that didn’t work we thought that the only answer was to lock him up at the next stop. Now I had been into the Assembly building before and frankly could not understand the purpose of this huge glass conservatory but, we were all going so in I went. Again John worked his magic because there he was standing near a door that I had not been aware of on my previous visit. He beckoned temptingly rather like a siren of old and led us through the door, up some steps and we found ourselves in the large viewing gallery above the debating chamber. We sat halfway between a large group being spoken to in English and a school group being spoken to in Welsh and I felt proud of our culture. All too often we are ridiculed and our language belittled but we have something that other parts of this island of ours do not. Be proud, whether or not you are able to speak the language it is yours to be proud of.

A straight run now to Castell Coch, up Bute Street, past the station and the new stadium and through the park but as the head of the group were racing towards the traffic lights Des had a puncture, more correctly his front tube did, so everyone was hauled back and we amused and educated all those waiting at the bus stop. Several of Cardiff’s previously bus-riding female octogenarians are so competent at mending punctures now that they have taken to two wheels and have applied to join the CTC.

Honestly!!

It is amazing how you can get from Cardiff castle to beyond the city boundary by just following the river Taff through the park. Very soon we were at the foot of the hill leading to the fairy tale Castell Coch . I must admit that I decided to forego my pride and walked up the last third of the hill – it is quite steep! Sadly the castle was closed for repair, some quite extensive work is being done to make it watertight and it was partly clad in scaffolding, not from the base but from half way up – intriguing. A surveyor emerged while we were there and he gave us a few snippets of information about the history. It was built by Lord Bute for his wife and just as we were thinking that someone must have an enormous amount of money to have been able to do that we were told that at one time the Bute family were the wealthiest family in the world. Just stop and consider that for a moment.

The ride back down the hill was a piece of cake, all that was necessary were nerves of steel and a good grip on the brakes. Time was running away and we were way past our lunch time but John had that organised as well, the ride back was not going to take long.

At least it shouldn’t have done.

A certain amount of anarchy was fermenting within the group and it was Mike that led the first breakaway. Now a breakaway is usually made from the front of a group but Mike made it from the ‘tail end Charlie’ position and shot down a track that just happened to be a track that we were not on. As soon as we realised this Walter was sent to try and pull him back but we soon realised that Walter had a similar intention in his mind and was, in fact, making his own attempt at escape so we then sent Trevor after the two of them. This was getting out of hand as John had already made a successful break before all of them and was nowhere to be seen. Now don’t ask me to explain how but we were eventually reunited and on our way again.

John’s choice of venue for lunch was The Prince of Wales, a Wetherspoons tavern. It was, as we could see, the old Prince of Wales theatre and it is quite something to behold. I won’t try to describe it because I would fail to do it justice. I’ll just say that when in there you are in no doubt that you are in a building that was a theatre – quite amazing. If you get the opportunity just go there.

Replete we set off on the final leg of our tour back to Penarth and our cars but not before exploring just one more dead end and giving Trevor the chance to give us the slip again. This time he did it to perfection and managed to remain separated from the group for what must have been a full fifteen minutes. Great stuff Trev!!

As darkness started to fall we arrived back at the cars, loaded our bikes and were away back in the direction of Swansea but as we were leaving Penarth John and I realised that we were being followed by two rather suspicious looking characters so we took a little detour to try and shake them off. They stuck on our tail though so very soon we had to get back on to the right road and head for the motorway.

Sorry Des and Colin for showing you some of Cardiff which was not on the proper route back home but, honesty is the best policy, I took a wrong turn!!

Altogether a really brilliant Away Day combining good cycling and great places of interest.

So a big hand please to

John Cardy BLOM (Born leader of men)

Who made it all possible.

Next Away Day will be on Wednesday 21st February – a ride from St Clears to Crymych.

Be there or face the consequences!