The Sportsman at Amberley - not quite!

Last Autumn when I worked out the first quarter Runs List (and was feeling fit), a ride from Crawley to Amberley seemed perfectly reasonable. On a cold Sunday at the beginning of January it just seemed ridiculous!  Fortunately for me, that's what my fellow attendees thought, so we unanimously agreed to go for a shorter ride. I decided to use the route I had already planned but only as far as the Partridge Green area and then to swing north and west before heading back to Crawley.

Off we set. Firstly we used NCN21 through Furnace Green and Tilgate to K2 before ascending Pease Pottage Hill. Passing through Pease Pottage and avoiding all the potholes, we then took Grouse Road. At the end we turned left, downhill and across the Hammerpond dam before that short but tough climb up to Church Lane which took us up to Lower Beeding.

Here we turned right then forked right to reach the Cisswood Hotel - I believe President Obama stayed here on his last visit to England. Turning right we used the A281 for a few hundred yards before turning left onto Newells Lane. The pond looked quite pictureskew so I took a photo:
















Whilst taking it, the rest of our group carried on and I was passed by several other cyclists as well, so on remounting I had to fly along the lane and pass these other cyclists in order to keep our group heading in the right direction at the next junction.

We continued south and crossed over the A272, then just before Littleworth we took a right and pulled up at The Camelia Botnar Garden Centre. Here we enjoyed a pleasant tea/lunch break before heading back in the direction of home. We recrossed the A272 and headed up to Maplehurst where we turned left and cut across to Copsale. The pub there seems to have been extensively rebuilt/extended and we couldn't work out whether it'll reopen as a pub or as a private residence. We continued north and then turned right onto Sedgwick Lane. This took us onwards, over the A 281 by the Garden Centre. After this we headed east through Doomsday Green and then retraced our steps back along Grouse Road, through Pease Pottage, past K2 and back to Three Bridges. We ended up riding about 40 miles on a day that although cold, was actually quite pleasant when riding a bike.