With Lancashire in additional lockdown measures and the advice from Cumbria County Council to restrict  groups of 6 to two households, our monthly group rides have been put on hold for the time being.  However, within these constraints we’ve been managing to get out and about on our tandems, either on our own or as a mini group of two tandems.

John and Janice caught the late October autumnal colours in South Lakeland on one of their rides, visiting Cartmel and Bowland Bridge.  This area has quite a few steep climbs but the effort of climbing the hills always brings its own rewards with spectacular views of the central and southern fells to the north and Morecambe Bay to the south with the Bowland Fells beyond.  In fact, the day after Janice and John visited that area of South Cumbria, I completed a similar ride with Mike on our solos.  The wooded hillsides are simply stunning in October with the golden autumnal colours.

Jeanette and I met up with Paul and Jeannette in early October for a tandem ride down to Beetham and across to Arnside and bumped into Matt coming in the opposite direction on his trike.  We couldn’t have planned to meet up at our lunch spot even if we’d tried.  We’d only changed our route at the very last minute as Jeanette knew where we could find a couple of picnic benches.  Paul and Jeannette also spent a couple of days exploring the Eden Valley, another beautiful area and superb cycling country.

New members to the Lancashire and Cumbria Group, though not new to the Tandem Club, Emily and Geoff joined Jeanette and me on a ride in the Lyth Valley and over the fell along the ‘gated lane’ as everyone knows it by, over to Ings.  We’ve been this way many times this year and it became one of our favourite ‘lockdown’ rides.  Now that a few cafes are opening up along the route, we’ve been able to take the opportunity to stop and enjoy a coffee (and perhaps a slice of cake!) on our rides.

John and Anne have been mixing tandem rides with walks recently, and have visited north Cumbria and also Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire before Lancashire’s lockdown level was increased!

November looks like it is going to be another ‘Zoom’ month up here in the North West unless we can come up with a plan within the current government guidelines.  Let’s see!