Meet: 09:00 Cutty Sark Gardens map and 09:30 Ladywell Fields map

Distance: 75 miles

Phone: Paul - 07957 209 322

We’ll head off for a slow start down the Waterlink Way, then speed down the North Downs to the Pilgrims Way. Skirting Sevenoaks, we’ll stop for lunch at a pub then down past Penshurst to hit the totally traffic-free Forest Way and Worth Way before getting a fast train back from Gatwick.

Suitable for any bike except racers

Pub lunch after about 40 miles so please, as always, bring snacks.

Report

Four met at Cutty Sark Gardens – Ray, Carol with a new bike all ready for her long foreign trip, Paul, and Steve on his much-admired recumbent. Then off to Ladywell where we met Jane, Jim and Tikrit (apologies for any mis-spelling), making us seven.

We took the Waterlink Way for a slow meandering start, giving us plenty of time to warm up, before upping the pace a little at Kent House to thread through suburbia to West Wickham, gateway to the countryside, even if the lanes beyond it are sometimes plagued by boy racers. Enjoy the scenery but be careful.

We tested our brake and nerves down Hesiers Hill before the long climb up Beddlestead Lane to the North Downs ridge. Not a bad climb once you know how long it is and learn to pace yourself. The reward was a swift descent down to the Pilgrims Way, a wonderfully rolling series of lanes. We took a slight detour to check out Chevening Church just outside the Foreign Secretary’s country estate. She’s been mysteriously invisible of late and we didn’t see her here either. A quick look round the church before the wedding arrived and off again to skirt the M25 before cutting down to Otford.

Steve left us just beyond Otford to carry on down the Pilgrims Way to a party in Maidstone, a neat set of clothes packed in his recumbent’s luggage. Skirting the back of the massive Knole Park we descended to the pub at Underriver which we used on our recent Sevenoaks ride.

A nice pub in a great spot, good selection of decent beer, but I fear the food, though good quality, is a tad insubstantial for cyclists. Mental note to try to find another economical cycle friendly pub in this area for future rides, though it won’t be easy in deepest stockbroker belt. Suggestions welcome.

I knew the route by heart until lunch but from now on was going to have to rely on typed notes clipped to the bike. Off we went and promptly missed the first turn which didn’t look anything like the T-junction shown on the Ordnance Survey map, and wasn’t named as I’d expected it to be. A quick correction and we were back on track with no more missed turnings.

We wandered through a series of country lanes, one of them even marked as a narrow road WITHOUT passing places. Then through Penshurst, which according to Carol and her CTC contacts has several cycle friendly cafes. Along the way several stops for general resting, snacking (always a good idea) and general nattering, much of it between Carol and Jane about the mysteries (to me) of cycle tubing, lugs, fillet brazing and whatever were discussed in impressive detail. Whatever it was all about their new traditionally made bikes are pretty impressive.

We were looking for the Forest Way traffic free path, which we just managed to find near Balls Green. This led us all the way to East Grinstead, where Jane had to take the train to dash to an important family event. After a supermarket stop we picked up speed on another long traffic free path (The Worth Way) which took us all the way to Three Bridges. Or it did after a guy on a BMX bike pointed out the un-signed turn that sometimes still foxes me.

Then just a short trip up the National Cycle Route to Gatwick, our faithful goods/toilet lift to the terminal (always shut both doors when leaving it or no-one else can use it) and a fast train back to town. Total mileage a bit under the billed 75 I think.

Paul