Another sunny Wednesday! Are we being re-aquainted with our summer or something? This summer will go down in many memories as a rather wet one, famous for its floods, and yet, look at the dates of the ride reports and we haven't had to call a ride off for simply ages. There were gaps for other reasons but not because of wet weather.

All bodes well for today and John and I arrive at Carew Castle car park at 10.00 to find quite a crowd there already, in fact there were 14 of us in total, or so was pointed out to me later. As leader of this ride and writer of this report I have to insist that there were actually 15 at the start and furthermore I have a right to insist on the basis that its my ball and if you don't like it you can jolly well go and play with someone else! So there!

Just a short ride from the start takes us to Creswell Quay where there is a secondhand book stall which seemed to be quite an attraction. An even bigger attraction lies behind the bookstall in the form of the ivy-clad Cresselly Arms. At this time of the morning it is of course closed but it certainly will not be when the Pembrokeshire Freewheelers have their evening ride later on tonight. The distance is no more than three miles from their starting point so it can be presumed that the attraction of tonight's evening ride is the pub rather than the ride.

I fail to see anything wrong in that!

After a brief book browse and a few purchases we are off towards Landshipping and we find ourselves delayed at a regrouping point while we wait for the 15th rider to catch up with us. We wait and wait and I can't help feeling that the others are looking at me in a rather strange fashion, sort of quietly questioning. They start to insist that we are all present and correct but I know best and to prove it we try and think who arrived together at the start. For some unaccountable reason they are proved correct and 14 seems to be our full compliment. I know they are just winding me up really and suddenly the penny drops - this is all to do with the legendary Thomas Evans (the man with the invisible cloak and the pot of invisible paint), a distant aquaintance of John Cardy. So, satisfied that, in my own way, I was right after all we continue and shortly we reach a sign that tells us that the Cwm Deri Vineyard is just 400 yards away and as it appears to be about time for elevenses we make a little detour. The vineyard grows its own grapes but not in sufficient quantity so they use the grape juice along with fruit juice to make a range of fruit wines and liquers. Well worth a visit. For more information about this vineyard see Cwm Deri Vineyard . For those who wish to buy, a sample tray of wines is available to taste but it was rather early for us.It was lovely to relax in the sun and we could have stayed there all day but Landshipping was beckoning.

So back up the road to see our next glimpse of the Cleddau and the tide was on the way in. My father once said "There's nothing much in Landshipping" and he was absolutely right. That's its beauty!

We retraced our steps and headed towards Martletwy waiting at the junction to regroup. All together again we are all off down the hill. Well, not quite all, Mike discovered that he had a puncture but we were already gone, Big Trev was the only one who knew and when he finally caught up with us Colin went back to help while we waited and discussed agriculture.

That's Colin - always the Good Samaritan, (and I don't care what everyone else says about him!)

We arrived at the last hill to climb before we reached Lawrenny and John Cardy was obviously ready for lunch because he came up behind Trev, put his hand on his back and pushed him up the hill. I could hear everybody struggling to clear the way for them and I though this must surely be recorded on my camera and I struggled to get some distance ahead of them but in my haste to get the camera ready I must have moved the function wheel and took the shot on night-time mode. A strange picture but worth inclusion. This must be the first time for ages that Trev beat everyone to the top of a hill!

We were soon riding by the side of the Lawrenny estuary which really was a picture with the incoming tide. The intention was to eat at the Tea Rooms where they serve a bottle beer called Kelpie which has seaweed flavouring (probably very good for rubbing on to small cuts) but we were a bit too late because all the tables outside were occupied so we headed back to the Lawrenny Arms which had plenty of room and also served Brains Dark. We all managed to fit on two tables.

The other table contained the Brains (Martin and David) of the group whereas our table consisted of the brains of the group. At our table we indulged in educational topics like the use of the apostrophe, split infinitive(')s, imply/infer and assumption/inference (I think). I was always ignorant of split infinitives but after Bryn expertly explained them to me I now really understand them and I will always avoid them in future! Mike's portion of chips arrive and he makes the mistake of offering them around without first checking how many of us were sitting at the table. Very nice too Mike, thanks!

John Cardy then regales us with extracts from his Thomas Evans, the invisible man, stories and has us in stitches. You will not have heard of Thomas Evans (nor Willemena Watts for that matter) but John's daughters Alison and Kathryn were put to bedwith their adventures when they were little. I am hoping that John might give me one of the stories for inclusion one day.

On the way back through Cresswell Quay Ken's bike develops an automatic gearchange and we all become green with envy until he points out that it doesn't change gear at the right time and it does it every 30 seconds whether Ken wants it to or not. We decide that this is not a good idea at all and advise him to return to the drawing board and come back when he has perfected the technology. He could make a fortune! However disaster struck just a mile from the finish when his chain wrapped itself around the block, snapped and took a couple of spokes out in the process.

Well it was a good idea Ken but perhaps on consideration there is not a great deal of future in it. Could be wrong of course. Luckily he could freewheel back to the finish.

A beautiful day, lovely area, great fun and good company. What more could anyone want?

Happy pedalling

Lew Spokes

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The French Mill, Carew		Carew Castle
The river at Cressell Quay		The bookstall
All the bikes		Cwm Deri Vineyard
The estuary at Landshipping		Trev waits to be served
The estuary at Lawrenny		The Lunch Stop
Group with John		Group with me
Trev's brisk climb, with a little help from his friend