Roy met me in Brook Mill Park . There were a couple of ten year old kids who said they wanted to come too. They had some decent mountain bikes and I figured they probably would have made the journey but the word kidnapping kept popping into my head. Well here's the website address, we'll be going there again, get your dad or your mum out of bed a bit earlier and we can all go together. We continued to get the wheelie demonstrations and picked up a couple of tips on other good places to go and do a little off-roading.

Tony met us at CSG and guided us along a pleasant back roads route up to Eltham Common. We did about 90 minutes riding around the woods, everyone stayed on their bikes – the boys are back in the woods, ring your bell, mind my dog – seriously good fun apart from the rather nasty English Bull Terrier that pulled it's owner off his feet trying to get a piece of us.

The ground is still very dry especially when you get off the main paths – the going is firm. The only muddy places are parts of the path that seem to be permanently wet no matter what time of the year it is. I saw more mud and water on the Hoo ride yesterday.

We had refreshments and a snack in the ever popular café at the top of the hill with the great view. The sun was out and it was pleasant to sit outside. There were several families out in the woods riding their bikes – good to see.

We all enjoyed this ride and Ill be offering another off road jaunt next month – maybe Epping, maybe Bostalls or maybe a return to Oxleas.

Ian Pendleton.