Mystery Ride

This ride was called Mystery Ride because I had no idea who would be leading it, nor where it would be going. We'd originally planned a ride to The Countryman Inn to have dinner there to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the club. But, as only three members had committed to the meal, we cancelled it. Instead, as a contingency, I plotted a route that could potentially take us to The Countryman for lunch but could equally use two or three other venues as the mid point.

Gordon and I had met up at Pease Pottage to keep each other company on the ride over to Horsham where we were met by Norman and Pete E.
As the accompanying slide show illustrates, we headed out of Horsham using the Salvation Army/ Depot Road/ Doomsday Green/ Sedgwick Lane route. For a change, at the end of Sedgwick Lane we turned right and passed through Newfoundout on our way to Southwater. In the heart of Southwater we turned right onto Church Lane. This took us through to Bonfire Hill and  we headed up to the Bax Castle but kept left and headed back down Two Mile Ash Road towards Barns Green. Next we turned left onto Trout Lane and then went left again at Lackenhurst Lane (the lane that you can't see on the Goldeneye Map!). Turning right onto Bakers Lane we were once again heading south and we kept in that direction past The George and Dragon and over the A272. By now we'd decided to head for the cafe at Southwater Country Park so we took the next left to pass through Shipley before turning north and following Pound Lane and Shipley Road all the way back to Southwater. After a brief detour around a small industrial park, we managed to pull up at the cafe and went inside. The cafe is under new ownership and has a bit of a refurb. The food was very good (I had a bacon and egg baguette with a bakewell slice to follow, all washed down with a good cup of tea).

Norman persuaded us he knew a shortcut through the housing estate so that we could avoid the hard slog along the Old Worthing Road and so we followed him into the depths of suburbia. Good to his word and with only one false turn to his route, he very quickly got us to Southwater Street where we could safley go over the A24 and head back towards Newfoundout. Now we took a left turn onto Pedlars Way to use an offroad route back to Horsham (I was the only one on slicks and I found the conditions quite tame and trouble-free). Crossing the river and reaching a bend, Norman now suggested using a Bridleway to cut across to the Brighton Road such that us Crawley riders could quickly get over to Grouse Road. However, we spent the next five minutes milling around a couple of fields before giving up and regaining Pedlars Way! Looking at an OS Map and an aerial view in Google Maps shows that we weren't far out, but...................!!

At this point we said goodbye to Pete and Norman led Gordon and I through a nice quiet set of roads back to the Salvation Army, across the roundabout and up Kings Road back to Roffey where he bade us farewell and we trudged on through the traffic lights and along Forest Road through Colgate and back to Pease Pottage.

This video is a slide show of most of the route:

photo.php

Next weeks ride (Sunday 10th March) is aimed at Beginners or those with less confidence/experience and will be an easy two hour ride starting from and returning to Three Bridges Station. Please be there ready for a 10:00hrs start. Why not bring your mum out for a ride - it will be Mothers Day after all!