Meet at Trevor Hughes  London Bridge Station By The Ticket Office at around 08:05 for the 08:23 Train to

Frant

Or : Meet Andrew Fergar on Bromley South Station Forecourt at around 07:55 for the 08:17 to Orpington - changing there onto the 08:40 to Frant ( which the London Bridge contingent will already be on )

Our ride today will be 39 miles in length and will include 2695 feet of of ascent and 2964 feet of descent ..almost all of the ups and downs being packed into the first 15 miles of the ride - the second half being virtually flat ....but bear in mind that some of the hills during the first half will take quite a bit of climbing!

We depart Frant Station and then proceed south via Wadhurst Station , Tidebrook , Mayfield , Broad Oak , Vines Cross , Grove Hill ..then Cowbeech Hill ...before skirting around Herstmonceux ..then South again through Stunt's Green and Ginger's Green ...whereafter we drop onto the Horse Eye & Pevensey Levels ...and thence to Pevensey itself for a long lunch ...where there is a castle to explore and no doubt places to find fish & chips or indeed a pub or two ( I will have more precise details on the day)

For those wishing to cut the ride short at Pevensey - there is a train to St Leonards

After Pevensey we ride 17 or so miles to St Leonard's Warrior Square ...a large part of which will be a long the line of the coast .

Report

photos

Katie Collis - One of our riders wrote this for me ...and Trevor took the piccies

3 of us (Trevor, Lyn and Katie) met at London Bridge but unfortunately, only 2 of us got onto the train, sadly the train doors were going 'beep beep beep' and they locked poor Lyn out. Lyn - we hope you made the most of your ticket and we will see you again soon! When the train pulled into Orpington, we were joined by leader of the pack, Andrew, together with Ian. It was with surprise that when we pulled into Frant station, William and Jo were on the same train!

En Avant! I think firstly that Andrew was right to warn us that there were plenty of hills in the first 19 or so miles, they were many and varying and just kept coming (and with plenty of longevity to them). But with such a beautiful day and glorious countryside (and shady woods) there was much to admire and take your mind off all the climbing. From Frant, we went through Wadhurst, Best Beech Hill, Mayfield, Broad Oak, Horam, Grove Hill and Ginger's Green. It was at this point that the hills quickly receded into flat marshlands as we headed on towards our lunch stop that was Pevensey, a few miles before lunch we met up with our very own Paul from Lewisham Cyclists – fancy seeing him there! Lunch was at the 17th Century http://www.priorycourthotel.com
and we chatted and ate and enjoyed the rest.

Post-lunch we had a brief meander around Pevensey Castle: originally it was a late Roman fort where location wise it would have been right on the edge of the sea - the fort's main purpose was to keep out the ever burgeoning Saxons and thus down the centuries became Normanized with standard medieval castle and moat. From here I was starting to get excited because we were finally heading in towards the sea, as soon as we all spotted it (around Norman Bay) we clambered onto the gravel beach and enjoyed the colour and it almost mill-pond like quality. Parallel to the sea we headed towards Bexhill we we briefly enjoyed the De La Warr Pavilion and its simplistic art deco style but we could not find the Lido! It was thence onto our destination that was St. Leonards Warrior Square where our train turned up in exactly 5 minutes!

Many thanks to Andrew and Trevor (and to everyone) for a lovely day out and a challenging, but enjoyable jaunt around Sussex!

Total mileage: Between 39 and 42 miles.

Ascent: 2695 ft
Descent: 2964 ft