Arun Crossings - DA Event

This years final DA Event took place on Sunday 2nd September.

The Arun Crossings is a great ride that simply involves crossing the River Arun as many times as possible between Pulborough and Rudgwick.

Plenty of riders gathered together at Pulborough railway station at the appointed time, however we had one small problem - our ride leader was missing. We tried phoning him but without luck and, as we know he sometimes checks out part of the route on his way to the start, we were worried he might have had a mishap somewhere. We hung around for one more train to come in but to no avail, so it was time to make a decision. As I'd ridden this event a few times before (although the exact route varies every time), I stepped into the breach and thanks to Ray and Joanna who had a map and a printout from the DA website, decided on a route to use.

There were thirteen of us and we set off north along Coombelands Lane. Eventually we took a bridleway on the left and headed down to Pallingham Quay and our first crossing of the river.












Now came our first climb of the day as we followed the bridleway up and onto Bedham Lane. A few hundred yards of tarmac and then right onto another bridleway heading east and over Pallingham Lane. Here we went through a freshly mown hayfield and once we'd crossed it had to spend some time removing all the hay tangled up in our gear mechanisms and pedals! Whilst waiting, some of us played Poohsticks from the bridge marking our second crossing of the Arun.

There was a little drizzle in the air now as we gained a farm track and with typical timing, one of our riders suffered a puncture. As they were happy (and equipped) to deal with it themselves I decided to ride on to the end of the farmtrack and wait for them there - it's easier to mend a puncture/replace an inner tube when you don't have an audience of several cyclists!

Turning left onto Blackgate Lane, we climbed up slightly the 100 yards to the end of the lane and then onto a driveway before bearing right onto a bridleway and swooping down a stony track to cross first the canal and then, 50 yards later, the river. We were now approaching the elevenses stop at Wisborough Green, but as we were running late I decided we'd keep going - a decision helped by the fact that two of our riders were going to switch to a road only route from here due to one of them having a sore ankle which was being aggravated by the bumpy off-road conditions. They could pop into the cafe and check for other riders whilst the rest of us could take a short cut along a bridleway and on to Newpound Lane and up past Fishers Farm Park.

On reaching the road we took the bridleway that was straight ahead. The drizzle had stopped but this bridleway was quite wet and muddy. I thought about getting off and walking but reasoned that I would get very muddy feet and quite possibly slip over, so I just selected the lefthand rut and, quite literally, ploughed through the mud. Most of the other riders did the same but, as I was holding the gate open for my fellow riders, I heard a splut! and looked around to see Anton picking himself up from the mud. I let out an involuntary laugh before composing myself and checking he was OK. As he remounted, he said he was oka-a-a-a-a-a-yyyyyyyy  SPLUT!!!  he'd gone over again. This time as well as getting coated in mud, he'd bashed his knee on his bike. Once he was through the gate and into the mud free field beyond, he checked out his knee - just a scratch - and scraped off as much mud as he could.

Over the field we went and arrived at Rowner Lock on the canal where Ray took these pictures:

Once we were back to the road we headed north and arrived at the The Blue Ship shortly after 1p.m. to be met by half a dozen other riders from the various West Sussex sections - including our missing leader. Safe and sound, he explained that he'd been late getting to the start due to being in the 12th coach when Pulborough station only has room for 8!!  That meant going on up the line and then a long wait for the next train back - by which time we'd all left.

Lunch was very good (especially the beer at £1 a pint!!) and it was a bit of a wrench to get going again. Colin led us for the return trip and managed to use 5 different crossings from the morning ones. I don't know how, but he also managed to find 5 completely mud-free routes! This pleased Anton especially.