Six head south. Graham Orford, Chris Kinsey, Alan Potter, John Mac, and John Owen, follow me through West Drayton. We swap tarmac for a series of semi waterlogged bridleways, following the Colne to our coffee stop at The George, Staines. I take the opportunity to ring our lunch order ahead to The Half Moon Ripley. They are fully booked. Lunch bookings, it seems need to be made well in advance of the actual day, complete with number of diners etc; which is rather impractical advice for the likes of us Loiterers with our normally adhoc arrangements. Never the less we decide to continue our journey and take pot luck. We start on the Thames path, dodging dogs and owners, then onto the Wey Navigation doing much the same. The sandy soil is beginning to accumulate under my rear mudguard, causing a distinct chugging noise as I proceed. Graham comments "You sound like a train" I rather petulantly reply, "And you sound like a milk float." I have to de-clog the offending mudguard a couple of times, but we soon arrive at Pyford Lock, and decide to stop for lunch at The Anchor pub. The place is packed, but there is plenty of seating outside. We join a queue of customers which starts somewhere on the tow path, but it's journey to the bar is relatively swift. The service is very efficient and we soon have our food. As we are so near Ripley, I decide to do a quick tour before starting the return leg. The most direct route back would have been over Horsell Common, but from memory I know it can be a bit boggy in places, so we go around it, heading for Virginia Water, and our tea stop at The Farm Shop, Old Windsor. We only have 10 minutes to spare when we get there, as the cafe closes at 16:30. I wrongly assume that it would close at the same time 17:00, as The Farm Shop. They did allow us to sup our beverages without scalding ourselves, but we had to relocate from the annex to the cafe proper, so they could start clearing up. Continuing the homeward leg, John Mac leaves us at Datchet, and the rest of us head for Richings Park and disperse near Cowley. Ideal cycling weather, dry but cool. Bernie