Reigate Garden Centre

Blue sky as far as the eye could see – what a glorious spring morning, just perfect for riding a bike. The only negative was the westerly wind, but even though it slowed me down, I still arrived at Horsham Pavilions on time. Waiting for me there were Barbara, Mike, Norman and Pete E. We then waited the customary 10 minutes before setting off. The first part of the route retraced my tracks all the way to Pease Pottage (including a broken set of temporary traffic lights which were permanently indicating red in both directions). Then we were onto Forest Road which was a lot easier to cycle at the beginning of a ride than when I usually tackle it: at the end of a long day.

At Pease Pottage, for the first time ever, I walked my bike down the slope to the road crossing – my brakes had been squeaking and juddering (due to oil contamination on the rims), and I thought it would be safer to walk. The traffic lights have been installed on the crossing although they’re covered up and not yet in use. Once safely over, we took the NCN route down through Broadfield and then through the underpass and onto Southgate Avenue. We followed this as far as the Library and then took a quiet shared use path which skirts the back of Crawley College and leads to Northgate Avenue. The cycle path through the woods alongside the Avenue was very pleasant with clumps of daffodils all around and blossom on many of the trees. Then it was through another underpass and into the Industrial estate. We used the green painted cyclepaths all the way to the Beehive. The next section goes directly under the Gatwick flightpath and is usually quite noisy, but we didn’t have a single plane pass over us today.

Under the terminal building our route was almost completely blocked by some workers erecting some scaffolding but just as I was starting to wonder if we would need to do a detour, Norman hopped up the kerb and led us all safely round the obstruction. Shortly after, on reaching the lake I was amazed to see how much work had been done on clearing the undergrowth from around it. I reckon it will look really good in two or three months time. Using a slightly different route through Horley brought us to the traffic lights by The Air Balloon pub and a rendezvous with Ros. Now there was(were?) five of us and I led us onto Meath Green Lane. This has a nice smooth surface and was an absolute pleasure to ride. It soon turns into Lonesome Lane and, when there weren’t any cars around, this lane was lovely and quiet with lots of birdsong. A quick left/right to cross the A217 and half a mile later we pulled up at Reigate Garden Centre.

John V & John C were already there in the café but there was still plenty of space for us all – as today was Mother’s Day I’d deliberately avoided using a pub for lunch as they tend to get crowded and run with limited menus.

As we chatted and ate our lunch we could see the sky getting darker and more than one of us commented that the forecast was for rain in the afteroon. It was no surprise therefore when we started to feel the odd spot of rain when we were only about a mile or so into the afternoon portion of our ride. For a while we led a charmed existence as a clear and sunny spot seemed to stay above us. But then as we turned south just after Leigh so a shower started. It was cold rain and, whipped along by the wind, felt almost like hail. We sheltered under a tree and Ros put her waterproof jacket on but almost as soon as she finished zipping it up the rain stopped. That was it – even though the grey clouds ebbed and flowed for the rest of the ride, we didn’t get any more rain!

Arriving at Parkgate, we said goodbye to Ros as she was now heading east via Horley, back to East Grinstead. We continued on to Newdigate to emerge opposite the Six Bells pub just as an ambulance was pulling up there – I hope it wasn’t something someone ate as we’re lunching there in a couple of weeks time!!

Although my route plan saw us going over to Capel and then down Weare Street and back to Horsham via Rowhook, the general consensus was that people wanted a more direct route home, so we headed straight to Rusper where I bade farewell and headed back to Crawley leaving the last three to travel the short distance back to Horsham.

After a very pleasant day in the saddle I was back home at about 15:00hrs with a total of 41 miles on my speedo.

Next weeks ride leaves Three Bridges Station at 10:00hrs and will take us to the Green Man at Horsted Keynes. As with any ride in this direction, there will be a couple of hills but nothing too extreme and the mileage should be somewhere under 40. Don’t forget: the clocks go FORWARD on Saturday night so you’ll have 1 hour less to lie in bed!