Five of the regular riders arrived at Reigate - Janice, Ed, Neil,
Daniel and Paul, along with some new or not so recent faces - Paul's dad
Ken, Matt and Patrick. At the designated hour I did a brief check of
the new town hall (Bob had mentioned that on one of the rides people
were waiting there) then we headed south towards Lonesome Lane.
Left along Lodge Lane then over the A23 to head
towards Smallfield, Effingham Road then the B2028 to Turners Hill and
the first hill of the day before descending to Tulleys Farm where Andy
and Jeff joined us. I also met Sue from Addiscombe with another CTC
group. Sue had looked for my ride on the web and found a CTC ride
stopping at Tulley's led by Dave but it was the wrong Dave!
After refreshments Ed decided he would head back
leaving 10 of us to head for the lunch venue. We did a swift downhill
to join the Worth Way for the first part of the ride. The section up to
Crawley Down was relatively comfortable but it got a bit rougher after
that. The plan was to stay on for about 2 kilometres then leave at
Imberhorne Farm and take the farm road alongside Worth Way to the road.
An operator error by whoever edited the route in my gps (that would be
me) meant we nearly missed the turn off but luckily we spotted it in
time.
I had implemented plan B in case anyone wasn't happy
with the 4 kilometre hill I had initially included so we headed through
East Grinstead and used the A22 to get to Forest Row. We didn't escape
completely though because there was a shorter but steeper hill by
Coleman's Hatch. After that though it was an easy ride to our lunch
stop at Withyham where we arrived about an hour earlier than I had
expected.
The lunchers entered the pub leaving the sandwichers
to eat at the front. Our table was ready so we ordered lunch -
ploughmans, soup and a sandwich and Daniel's meal. Daniel was
interested in the roast grouse so ordered that but changed his mind when
he heard it was £25 and settled for the beef.
Everyone joined the lunchers later including Bob who had arrived by train and bike.
After
lunch we said goodbye to Bob and started the lumpy section of the ride.
We had some uphill by Bolebroke Castle then by Cowden then a flat
section through Edenbridge where Jeff left us. I'll give a special
mention to Crockham Hill which had quite a bit of uphill and some
descents that would have been very nice apart from the large holes in
the road from time to time. Janice had a close call here when the car
in front of her did a sudden stop.
Anyway everyone arrived in Westerham safely and prepared for the last climb of the day that was included in the itinerary.
Clarks
Lane seems to be the least steep of the ways up to the ridge above
Oxted and everyone arrived at Tatsfield Church ready for refreshments.
A shortage of milk jugs and teaspoons caused some consternation in the
hall but our team had just about enough to go round.
After tea Neil was heading to Caterham on the Hill
because he hadn't done enough hills (or it could have been he was
meeting someone). The rest of us headed through Westerham to Purley
and Woodcote Valley Road. At the end of the road I said goodbye and
turned towards Coulsdon while the others headed towards the bridle path
that would take them to Banstead and beyond.
For a change I had a short day with just over 60 miles leaving the others to wend their way onwards.
From Dave S.
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| Tully's Farm |
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| The Dorset Arms - Withyam |
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| High tea - Tatsfield |
First outing for my pure 100% Merino wool top at the bargain price of £19.99.
Warm but with wicking qualities too.
As I write "lot's in stock" of large,x large & xx large.
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