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MITCHAM LOOP AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY Despite the lack of young people on our monthly family-friendly ride, there is still a definite market for it. 10 riders turned up at the library, all looking for a gentle, slow half day on the bike with plenty of things to see and lots of places to stop. It's a great introduction to leisure cycling but it's also a great route, making the most of every traffic-free cycling route in the area.
Mitcham Common is the first port of call and that eventually leads us to the Beddington Lane tramstop where we ride over the platform and straight into the woods. In recent times, the tranquility of a Sunday morning ride has been shattered by the noise from the adjacent motor racing circuit but no complaints from me as the vehicles are actually being driven in the proper place and not over commons and through parks. The noise subsides as you pick up the lengthy track between the sewage farm and the railway which pops you out in Beddington Park. The cycle routes take you past Carew Manor and then through the new Butter Hill development to the river path which ends at Grove Park by Carshalton Ponds. Virtually traffic-free for 5 miles.
We holed up at Honeywood for a short break, very pleasant sitting in the warm sun by the water. After getting back onto our bikes we rode for a short while up the High Street and then ducked behind the Charles Cryer theatre back into Grove Park and out through the Westcroft leisure centre car park and back to Butter Hill where we picked up the Wandle Trail.
We had our first ever trailer on this ride and it had already met some obstacles along the way. However, Sutton's dreadful swirly barrier was a step too far. This monstrosity serves very little purpose and was designed by an artist rather than a civil engineer. The mistake has been acknowledged! See the photos if you're not sure which barrier this is.
We took a short detour to visit BedZed, the UK's largest eco-village. It had some bad publicity back in May when it was reported that their innovative heating and power plant that just uses waste wood has never actually worked properly and they now use gas to power their heating. It's a fascinating place and always worth a quick loop around.
Back to the Wandle Trail and along the Watermeads river path to the annoyingly barriered Ravensbury Park and into Morden Hall Park, through the Wetlands and up to Merton Abbey Mills for lunch at the riverside pub. Three riders peeled off so the rest of us meandered back along the Myrna Close railway path to Figges Marsh and then onto Mitcham Common for a final loop before heading back up to the library. This was the first time we've included all the components of the route in one ride so it turned out to be 15 miles over 4.5 hours. See some photos from today on Flickr
Sunday 19th August BASINGSTOKE CANAL WEEKENDER
Six on the train and two waiting at Hook made for a comfortable total
of eight riders on the second day of our Basingstoke canal weekender.
This time we were riding the entire length of the canal but before we
started, we rode through Warnborough Green to look at the fords. One
intrepid rider attempted both but the gravelly bed on the second one
caused a dismount halfway across in a foot of water. See it on video:
Riding towpaths means single file and being careful to warn other users
politely of your presence. The Basingstoke Canal is privately run so no
cycling permits were required from British Waterways. We stopped off at
several scenic spots to give our legs a quick break and to give an
opportunity to change positions in the line. The path is pretty bumpy
in places and your arms were also glad of a break. A puncture around
midday was swiftly dealt with but then the weather turned. We sat out a
shower under a bridge. That put us a bit behind and we were passing
Farnborough Airfield when we should have been holed up at the pub
having lunch.
It was about 1:20pm by the time we hit The Swan at Ash Vale. It's a
pricey country pub but the food was good and to be honest, you haven't
got much choice around those parts unless you've good local knowledge
to take you away from the towpath. Another puncture was spotted and
dealt with before we left.
Our next stop was only up the road, the canal's Visitor Centre. It's
got a little tea shop, a small exhibition about the canal and lots of
picnic benches. It's also home to the campsite and it certainly didn't
look as if it were sold out by the time we got there. The sun was
blazing by now so we enjoyed another drink and some cake.
Canal life is definitely hidden to those who drive by on adjacent
roads. We saw lots of pleasure boaters, herons and water voles, WW2
pillboxes and tank traps, an angler with a huge fish he'd caught and
lots of lush green countryside. The section just after the visitor
centre was best. The towpath opened out a bit and we descended just
over a hundred feet as we passed the flight of locks at Deepcut. Water
shortage meant that they were currently closed to boats but it was
still delightfully scenic.
We had plenty more stops for photos and picked a few more plums from
the trees near Woking before carrying our bikes over the stepbridge and
riding up to the railway station. Unusually, the guard implied we had
too many bikes to fit in one cycle compartment and wanted us to split
up over the train. This happened for the first time last week but
instead, we carefully positioned our 6 bikes alongside the bike that
was already on the train and made sure we didn't block the passageway.
Once the guard had seen what we'd done, he was fine. It just takes a
bit of common sense sometimes when you're transporting that many bikes
on trains that aren't designed for it. Out for 7 hours plus rail travel, 30 miles. See some photos from today on Flickr
Saturday 19th August BASINGSTOKE CANAL WEEKENDER The camping trip hadn't quite worked out as planned. As well as a landslide just outside the station we were supposed to travel to, the campsite filled up before anyone got around to booking! As a result, I changed the starting point of today's ride to Woking, just a short train ride from Wimbledon. This was the first time we were going to be following a route that I hadn't put together myself. Three of us joined the Basingstoke canal just under a mile from the station and rode to Pirbright bridge where we picked up a route from Ron Strutt's highly recommended Rural Rides book. It's the only cycle routes book worth buying, full of detailed information about the routes and places you travel through and Ron is as meticulous about his routes as I am and also favours the quietest roads and bridleways.
Because I hadn't had time to do the ride before the day, I programmed our GPS by carefully plotting the route on Gmap-pedometer. Google Maps allow you to zoom right in and change to an aerial view so I was able to work out how to access the canal, where the turnings were for the bridleways and tracks and check the elevation to see how hilly it was. I also printed out scans from the Ordnance Survey maps onto waterproof paper. It was worth the effort as soon as we left the station because I started in the wrong direction and caught it on the GPS but also so I knew which bridge to leave the canal by to start Ron's route.
It took a bit of time to master watching the GPS screen for the turnings and I missed the first track by 20 yards, mostly because it looked like there was no public access. The track bordered the National Rifle Association's shooting grounds at Bisley and a set of military byelaws were posted at the access point. We found the bridleway turn off using the GPS and suddenly it started to become a lot easier. It's no substitute for reading a map but it's a very good tool for checking you are still on the right path.
A road signed as a dead end by Lucas Green turned into a track and we were soon in the bizarrely named Donkey Town (is Mark Knopfler singing about this place on his latest record?). Another mile of rural lanes and the GPS pointed to a tiny opening in the trees where the Scutley Lane bridleway starts. This criss-crosses a tiny stream on wooden bridges and has been 'surfaced' by piles of loose gravel and small patches of sand. It's tough going on a bike but soon we were crossing the M3 on a traffic-free bridge and then it's a short ride to the Half Moon, a very upmarket and well-kept country pub at Windlesham that does fairly priced garden-fresh bar food. The sun was shining so we sat outside for a leisurely lunch.
After passing the polo grounds of Westcroft Park, former home of Henry Serpell of biscuit-making fame, we turned into Ford Road, expecting to find a simple county ford half way down. Instead, we came across our first ever 'wet road', a stream that runs along the course of a road. At this point, it's known as Watery Lane - it's about 8ft wide and has a gravel bed with about 8 inches of water flowing over it. There's a RTO (Road Traffic Order) banning motor vehicles from using the byway but as Ron Strutt himself says on wetroads.co.uk, presumably horses, cycles and pedestrians are still welcome to use it! We declined top get our feet wet and used the footpath adjacent to the byway.
The excitement of seeing a wet road caused me to turn the wrong way which the GPS picked up. However, it took us past a beautiful plum tree so we stopped to eat some fruit. We'd already eaten some plums from the vegetation along the Basingstoke canal but these were nicer. The adjacent apple tree wasn't so good. We nipped along a shortcut bridleway I'd spotted on the map and we were soon back on course and heading for another ford. This was the more traditional stream crossing a road but it looked over a foot deep so none of us fancied ford-bashing. Once your bottom bracket is under water, you're asking for trouble as the water can get in and affect the bearings.
I'd hoped that the Woking Miniature Railway might have a cafe but they're only open on Sundays. A private party was taking place and the weather was definitely trying to rain on us at this point so we carried on back through the suburbia of Knaphill to the canal where the sun came back out. The GPS and Google Maps really came into their own here as I'd spotted a path between the houses to access the canal on the aerial view that you never would have found just by map reading. About 22 miles, out for about 6 hours plus train journeys. See some photos from today on Flickr
See a mini-movie:
Sunday 13th August VIKING COASTAL TRAIL The weather wasn't looking too good for our summer fun seaside trip to the coastal resorts of East Kent. 7 people in the drizzle at unmanned Streatham Common station caught an early train to Victoria where we part-exchanged our 20p Permit To Travel cards for returns to Ramsgate using the Group Save offer - 7 tickets for the price of 4. We split the costs equally. One rider at Victoria, another at Bromley South and the 10th waiting for us at rain-free Ramsgate.
I hadn't ridden the route before but had remembered Lewisham Cyclists reporting the Viking Coastal Trail as one of the best signed routes in the country so I planned on just following the signs. It turned out that we had a veteran of the route in our midst so I metaphorically handed over the leader's jersey and decided to backmark instead.
It was indeed well signed once we found the harbour. I'd heard that the wind is favourable if you go round clockwise so we headed up the slope where the cross channel ferries sail from and almost immediately hit a large, open, traffic-free promenade. Then you head inland towards the village of Minster, again using a lot of traffic-free sections such as Chalk Hill which goes over open fields of crops.
The rain caught up with us just after St Nicholas and we got drenched for 30 minutes. Fortunately, we'd pre-empted the downpour and all had our waterproofs on. There's a bumpy path by the river Stour and a sign hidden by overgrown trees but once you cross the railway, you're up on the sea wall riding towards Minnis Bay. Shells crunched under our tyres almost constantly but no punctures. There's a slippery cobbled slope up to the road and a short ride to The Swan at Westgate where it had brightened up enough for us to eat outside and dry off. Unfortunately, the food selection was limited to 3 choices unless you wanted to sit inside at the restaurant. I really should have rung ahead but we'd been riding constantly for two and a half hours and everyone was ready for a break.
The route was virtually all along the sea front from here. Although the sun had come out, we pretty much had the entire route to ourselves. The sea was quite rough in places but the route was wide enough to avoid the spray. Margate was busy with families out on the beach. We snaked around the coastal routes to Broadstairs, passing Bleak House where Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations. Morris Dancers greeted us with a procession up the street. It was so busy with day-trippers that we had to dismount and walk. A fish and chip shop was located and we lazed in a small park on the cliff top. It's by far and away the best of the Kent coastal towns with plenty of character and atmosphere. We'd caught the end of Folk Week and musicians were either setting up or performing on makeshift stages.
After an ice cream, we ambled the final few miles through Dumpton Park back to Ramsgate. The 29 mile ride only took us 6 hours but we had 6 hours of train travel to get there and back. Well worth it though. Also on the train - Southwark Cyclists, back from their 50 mile ride. See some photos from today on Flickr
See a mini-movie:
Sunday 6th August CROYDON'S BRIDLEWAYS 6 of us gathered at Pollards Hill Library this morning. I suggested a change to the proposed schedule that enabled us to have an earlier lunch. We took a standard PHC on-road route to East Croydon and soon after went along our first off-road section, a bridleway between Coombe Road and Croham Road near Lloyd Park. After negotiating some temporary traffic lights on Croham Road we went along Conduit Lane (a second bridleway) to our morning break stop at Coombe Wood Cafe. Most of us just had drinks here as lunch was promised to be only another hour or so away.
We picked up three more cyclists at the morning break, who were Croydon-based and didn't fancy the trek to Pollards Hill and/or such an early start. The nine of us took in a couple more bridleways before I decided we'd better do Littleheath Woods, as we had at least 3 keen/serious mountain bikers with us. The bridleway in Littleheath Woods is poorly designed as it goes over not one but TWO hills. We got to the top of the first hill, waiting for those who walked, and then at the bottom of the hill we turned left to go across a bumpy, grassy path across a field, instead of going up the steeper second hill. 6 of the group got up the steep little slope to the road, but I gave up and walked. We went along two more bridleways through Forestdale and then up Baker Boy Lane. On the way we encountered two fallen trees, which didn't have paths round them. We had to lift our bikes over the first but we dragged the second (smaller) tree off the path! From the top of that bridleway, we crossed Farleigh Common to The Harrow (pub) for lunch where we got three tables under the same huge umbrella at the pub to keep out of the sun. Some of us had one of the pubs 'Small plates' which were less than a fiver, but a couple of riders had full Sunday lunch plates (perhaps they were aware of what was to follow?!).
We pedalled along the bridleway to Farleigh Church, then on the one, which is part of the Waterlink Way, through Holt Wood. Then we used the Byway (Open to All Traffic, and known as BOATs) to Limpsfield Road and along the narrow Shared-Use path. We went slightly downhill on a fairly flat bridleway from Ledgers Road back towards Chelsham Common. A chain broke on the uphill bit of Crewes Road, but was soon fixed. We used another bridleway on the other side of Limpsfield Road and then the bridleway round to Riddlesdown. We went down Dunmail Drive, which is a really bumpy footpath for the top two-thirds of the route.
3 riders left at the bottom of Dunmail Drive having worked out that they could get back to Purley without having to go up another hill. The remaining 6 of us went up Mitchley Hill (steep, but a sealed, proper road) to Sanderstead and then we went down to Selsdon so that, having saved the best until the end) we could go along (down) the bridleway down the middle of Croham Hurst Golf Course. We flew down that route (the last of 19 off-road sections for the day). Another rider left at the end of this bridleway, and the remaining five of us headed down to South Croydon and along to central Croydon on roads. Then we took the proposed LCN+ route west from Croydon and along Mill Lane and into Beddington Park to the cafe there (arriving just before 4pm, nearly three hours after lunch! After that break we used the Beddington Sewer path and crossed Mitcham Common to get back to the library, which only took an extra half-hour. 31 miles, back just before 5pm. See some photos from today on Flickr
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