We always seem to get a good turn-out for our monthly ‘introductory’ rides for some reason. Maybe we should be able to figure that out?! So it was, that this Sunday we had seven riders – Sandra, Sandy, John C, John V, Norman, Bob.
My stoker was still tucked-up ‘al la duvet’, so I was on my hack bike in case we went along the Worth Way. But she had suggested Woodhatch garden centre and so we set off in that direction as everyone else thought that this was a good idea.
The route 21 took us to Horley on a bright but chilly morning and there we carried straight on through the town centre to the cross roads with the A23. Once over we arrived at Lonesome Lane. Well it’s not as Lonesome as it used to be when I commuted daily down it in the 70’s, but it is still very pleasant and the light traffic was well behaved. Arriving at Woodhatch we found that the garden centre had some kind of seasonal fund-raising event on, but fortunately we were able to get in to the café.
After refreshments and a natter we crossed Woodhatch to the west of the A217 by a diverse route through the back doubles, courtesy of John V. Although I lived in Woodhatch for several years John still manages to know routes that I don’t! I don’t know how he does it. Arriving at the A217 we turned right to the south and hurried along for about 500 metres to the right turn for Irons Bottom at Sidlow Bridge. I don’t think that I will speculate how this village/hamlet got it’s name! This road was lightly trafficked and we had a quiet ride through pleasant countryside, to Povey Cross where we said goodbye to Norman as he headed back directly to Horsham, and we headed through the back entrance to Gatwick.
After retracing our steps through the terminal we arrived back at Three Bridges. Total ride duration about 4 hours including long coffee break. Distance about 25 miles and average speed around 8 mph. Anyone can ride at this speed and we’d love to see you at the next one – Sunday 10th Feb, 10.00 at Three Bridges Station. Go-on, put it in your new 2013 diary now!
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Peter Smith
CTC Crawley/Horsham
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