The e-mail said something like "I'll probably arrive a bit late at 11's, going around the houses to avoid the main roads".
11:23am the drowned rats turned up with new leader Ian at the helm.
Something about a beefy shower in the Croydon area. So much for the "mainly dry" day as promised (BBC News 24) although
www.metcheck.com was pretty much bang on.
Midday departure for everyone (Ian, me, Keith, Ed, Steve, Ann, new girl-Emma) leaving Bob & Pete/Daphne.
Before that, my pronunciation of "cafetiere" caused the Waitrose lad to serve up a coffee
& tea (
cafe-tea), Oh dear!
We left Bromley due SE to Petts Wood via the agreeable Jubilee Country Park, then east past the vast and smelly Allied Bakery factory performing the "Chorleywood process".
Green fields were in abundance as we went through Crockenhill, the delightful Farningham (shame about the M20 noise) to lunch at Horton Kirby.
"The Bull" appears in both 2007 & 2008 CAMRA guides and although quite small inside, the beer garden affords fine views across the Darenth Valley.
After leaving the pub, Ian chose to retrace back to Farningham then Eynsford and the rough road past Lullingstone Villa/Castle/Park and Visitor's Centre to a stonker of a climb up to Well Hill.
We sped past Chelsfield BR, the (always) heavy A21 at Green St Green, High Elms GC to a cracking tea at Downe.
A popular establishment, with a good tea/cake menu and reasonable prices. Hard to come by on a darkening night in early November, anyhow they were £18 richer by the time we had left.
Blinking lights were necessary for the remainder of the ride,which took the familiar Jackass Lane to Coney Hall, then West Wickham, Croydon, etc.
A potentially hilly ride which wasn't too bad mainly due to avoiding Halstead, Knockholt, Shellys Lane & Cudham.
Thanks Ian, you passed with flying colours.
Blog of the week:
Read about Seattle cyclist, Peter Mackay, being shot at whilst riding his bike.........astonishing!
http://petermckay.blogspot.com/Click on "Not a typical commute home" under archive.
(Or direct link
here,
Lisa)
joystick to climb Croham Hurst and Ballards Way to the heights of Addington, followed by the dive down Gravel Hill past Addington Palace, where the formation briefly split, before reforming to bank N.E. along Kent Gate Way. Then up again along Layhams Road, North Pole Lane, Jackass Lane and across the A 233 to Green St. Green. Another climb up Worlds End Lane, where the higher you rise, the more exclusive become the lodges. We pass the former residence of a once Lord Mayor of London, Brass Crosby, whom the roadside plaque remembers as the instigator of published records of parliamentary debate and the origin of the expression “bold as brass”. So on to Well Hill and the greens and fairways of Lullingstone Golf Club.
In the clubhouse, head buried in his broadsheet, David W had ploughed a solitary furrow. Now we are a quartet! Half-way through an excellent bacon bap, a steaming Andy appears, glowing like a nuclear reactor, having overcome mishap after mishap: forgotten water-bottle, southern rail bike ban, puncture; that attendance point not lightly to be surrendered.
After BYO al fresco, it is homeward bound along the Pilgrim’s Way to Otford, down Polhill, up Star Hill to Knockholt, up Shelley’s Lane, down the terrifying, evil-cambered one in four at Cudham, along Downe Lane to tea at the Church Hall, courtesy of Downe Am. Dram. Soc. From here on, a gentle down-hill home – well, nearly - through West Wickham, Croydon, the Flyover with the parting of the ways at Waddon. 