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MITCHAM LOOP Today's 5 riders got lucky with the weather. Clear blue skies and some actual warmth to the sun. You'd never think it was January!

The route is familiar to PHC regulars but makes for a lovely couple of hours out on the bike. Across Mitcham Common, along Willow Lane, through the deserted industrial estate and into BedZed for a quick lap. Then we pick up the Wandle Trail, using a nifty shortcut through a car park to avoid dismounting at Merton Council's first set of barriers and over a shared-use bridge to meet the notorious 'swirly' barrier. Designed by an artist rather than a qualified civil engineer, the people responsible for its commission have since admitted that this was a mistake. However, it is destined to stay because it "separates two communities that never wished to be joined by the bridge". A bit like a mini Belfast in your back yard.

The Watermead path has recently been tidied up and the river looked stunning in the winter sun. We emerged in Poulter Park and crossed the road into Ravensbury Park, probably the most beautiful park in Merton. A kingfisher was spotted recently. It's a shame the park has been blighted by big black ugly barriers on the cycle path, erected by the Council without consultation.

We lunched at the National Trust cafe in Morden Hall Park. Service is slow but you can easily imagine you're in the depths of the countryside, sat outside with your cream tea and scones, rather than a couple of hundred yards from the ugly town centre of Morden. That's the beauty of this route - it gives you a sense of escapism.

Morden Hall's wetlands provide the route out to Deen City Farm and Merton Abbey Mills where we cut behind the award winning development on the new cycle path and cross the A24 to pick up the old railway line, partly hidden by a billboard. This takes you to Figges Marsh where it is just a short ride back to the library. 10 miles, out for 3.5 hours

Some old pics of rides around this route (no camera today)

Sunday 22nd January

ON THE TRAIL OF THE DIGGERS Following a tip-off the night before from one of our riders, I had to change our meeting point from Mitcham Junction to Wimbledon station due to engineering works. No mention of that when I enquired on Friday about the Sunday morning trains. Fortunately, only one person at Mitcham Junction so we rode to Wimbledon and made it in good time. One other at Wimbledon, one too far away to make it on time, one on the train already and one waiting in Leatherhead.

So it was five well wrapped up riders who left the station and almost immediately jumped off the roads to ride through Fetcham Nature Reserve and subsequent back streets. Shame the heavy freezing fog meant we couldn't see much. We pulled into the garden centre at Stoke D'Abernon after 3 miles for tea and cakes and to give the fog chance to lift. Which it did.

The Diggers Trail takes you to five key points in the story of Gerrard Winstanley's land rights campaigners of 1649. We did them in reverse order, starting at Littleheath Common, their final settlement before they dispersed. An interpretation board marks the spot where their camp was thought to have been.

The Diggers board in Cobham has a nice mosaic above it. We pushed on for a nose around Painshill Park, Charles Hamilton's 18th century landscape gardens. You have to pay to see the gardens but the cafe is free entry and reasonably priced. We'll go back there on another ride.

After Cobham, it's rural lanes all the way to lunch at the Black Swan at Martyr's Green (nice but an hour for food to arrive) and through Ockham Common, past the truck stop and over the A3 / M25 junction to Redhill Road where we saw a gate that inspired an illustration in the original Wind In The Willows book and had a swift look around the Cobham bus museum, courtesy of one of the volunteers there.

Over the road from the bus museum (and another Digger's board) is the entrance to St George's Hill, the most expensive development in rural England. It is gated and guarded by CCTV. A sign warns against 'Dog walkers and other forms of trespass'. The irony is not lost on us - St George's Hill is the most famous landmark in the Digger's story. It was here that Winstanley set up his first camp and encouraged local people to come and grow vegetables and live off the land as equals. 200 years before Karl Marx, the Diggers were practising a form of Communism; "This earth was made a common treasury for all". They were beaten up and forced to leave by local landowners. Some things never change.

We rode around the outside of the St George's estate and saw the 1999 Diggers monument near Weybridge station. 2 caught the train here. 3 of us ploughed on for another 5 miles and naughtily rode through the private Burwood Park estate. Huge houses, other worldly. But what do they fear? Virtually all the roads in the area are private. Jumped on a train at Hersham. Back to reality. 22 miles. 6 hours. More on the Diggers here and here.

See some photos from today on Flickr

Sunday 15th January

KENLEY AERODROME One of the reasons people like our routes is that they're tried and tested. Today was the exception and we suffered for it! I only went out the day before the ride, instead of several days in advance, to try out the bridleways on Happy Valley but they turned out to be impassable on a bike, too steep and heavy with clay and mud. So I had to change the route which added a few miles. What I didn't do was try the Grove Lane bridleway from Oaks Park to Clock House, part of the Sutton Countryside Walk. And that's how six of us came to be bogged down and delayed by heavy, sticky mud!

We'd enjoyed a nice ride through the Little Woodcote estate of black weatherboarded farmsteads and a mid-morning tea stop at the Oaks Park cafe and were ready to venture into the Chipstead lanes before we got bogged down. How Lane's incline was tough after our energy was sapped by the mud but the fast descent down to the A23 at Hooley cleared the worst of it from our bikes.

The traffic-free Forge Bridge reveals the deep railway cutting just before it disappears into a tunnel. We took the slightly less muddy Pretty Lane bridleway into horsey territory, past a private collection of old vehicles including a fantastic old fire engine and a couple of Routemasters and down the Drive Road track which is a fast descent on a good surface that ends with an impossible climb on chalky mud. But that brings you out on top of Farthing Downs where cattle roam freely over the road so it's worth it. You'd never think you were only a few miles from Croydon - check the pictures on Flickr and have a look.

I knew from my reccy that we had to circumnavigate Happy Valley so we dropped into Coulsdon South and climbed back up to Old Coulsdon which didn't seem so far away from home when a No 60 bus passed us on its way to Pollards Hill!

The Wattenden Arms had reserved a table for us and there's a good choice of food at reasonable prices. The ride had been tough so we lingered over lunch for 90 minutes and opted for the most direct route home. And as it was virtually all downhill, we were at the Croydon branch of the Wandle Trail within 40 minutes and back at Pollards Hill after an hour.

Great destination but need to make the route out a bit easier. 30 tough miles, out for 7 hours.

See some photos from today on Flickr

Sunday 8th January

THE WHITE BEAR AT FICKLESHOLE Some rides will be remembered for the route or the scenery, some will be remembered for the great lunch stop. Today's ride will be remembered by the miserable rainy weather.

8 intrepid riders started off on what looked to be a reasonably mild day. We crossed Mitcham Common and ducked behind the tram stop to get to the Beddington Park path (or the Sewer Path as I sometimes call it - it skirts the edge of Beddington Sewage Farm). The bird watchers were out in force. An owl had been spotted.

We cut behind St Mary's in Beddington and onto the Croydon branch of the Wandle Trail, past Waddon Ponds and through the side streets of Croydon to the Wyvale Garden Centre and its recommended cafe on Waddon Way. It's built on the site of the old Croydon Lido and you can still see the old diving platform.

After a relaxing tea stop, we hit the hills around the Whitgift School and admired the houses on Croham Manor Rd as we climbed toward the Ballards Farm Road bridleway and through to the roads skirting Littleheath Wood. We skipped the Bridle Way path at Selsdon Nature Reserve because it's too steep to get up when the surface is so slippy and used roads to reach the Baker Boy Lane bridleway which was really muddy. This route takes you right into the rural countryside at Farleigh Common.

By this time is was pouring with rain so we pressed on to the White Bear only to find that you have to book to be able to eat! After a bit of pleading they found us two tables of 4. I couldn't believe it - I've called every pub we've been to since the Downe fiasco (pub refused to serve half of us because there were "too many" cyclists) but for some reason I didn't think I needed to call the White Bear. They also take their cheaper menu options off on Sundays. Lesson learnt.

The route back seemed to fly by, perhaps because most of it was downhill. 2 miles of gentle downhill on Featherbed Lane and once up the short but steep Spout Hill another few miles of downhill into South Norwood Country Park.

I got slightly confused trying to replicate last week's short cut and brought us out on the busy Brigstock Rd by mistake but a quick nip through the backstreets and Mayfield Park bought us out on the Pollards Hill estate.

27 miles, out for 7 hrs.

See some photos from today on Flickr

Sunday 1st January

BECKENHAM PLACE PARK 10 riders, including 3 new faces and 2 CTC regulars, ignored the weather forecast and turned up for our first outing of the year - a slow amble to Beckenham Place Park to shake off any NYE excesses. The route is a mixture of quiet urban backstreets and a series of parks. We were fortunate to have a rider with excellent local knowledge who took us through some even quieter shortcuts than the ones we normally use. In particular, crossing the railway in Holmesdale Rd enabled us to completely skip the busy Thornton Heath High St.

South Norwood Country Park was our first major park and it's here that we picked up the Waterlink Way, a cycle route that stretches from Greenwich to Eastbourne. We used the proposed future route through an unnamed park rather than the dull Beck Lane route to reach the unkempt Barnmead Road on the Cator Estate and then duck under Kent House railway station.

The New Year's Day golfers were out in Beckenham Place Park, hopefully mindful of a sign warning them that twilight was at 2pm! Because of the grey skies and on and off drizzle, it seemed pointless and unnecessarily miserable to stay in the park and have a picnic so we pushed on to the Tigers Head at Beckenham Hill. Some of us opted for hot food whilst others furtively ate their picnics so as not to upset the pub staff.

As we had made good time, we rode a mile or so further north after lunch to pick up the Waterlink Way at Catford which enabled us to ride through the new park and the long traffic-free section alongside the railway.

There was another pleasant route change on the return, the park path at the end of Dickensons Lane instead of Birchanger Rd and then it was up past Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's old house on Tennison Rd, past the Crystal Palace ground and onto London Cycle Network Route 5, through the Thornton Heath Recreation Ground and back onto Pollards Hill.

20 miles, out for 5 hrs.

See some photos from today on Flickr

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