Easy Ride

An easy ride today but only experienced riders turned up. Shame, as it was actually a very pleasant and mild day which would have suited everyone.
Pete S led Marian (no choice, she was stoking his tandem), John V, Gordon and Bob off through Three Bridges, Northgate, the industrial estate and on to Gatwick. As we travelled through the airport we met a young Chinese lady on a bike, looking lost. We couldn't understand her very well but thought she was trying to get to a building near the north terminal. Pete altered our route so that we could guide her to the north terminal, but as we got there I was trying to find more detail from her and realised that the building she wanted was near the Hilton Hotel ie. back near the south terminal but the other side of the railway! We explained this to her and suggested she used the lift to get into the south terminal and then cross over the railway from there.

We carried on out of the airport at Povey Cross to continue north and onto Horse Hill. This took us to Ironsbottom where we turned left onto the A217 for a few hundred yards before we turned left again to head through the southern outskirts of Reigate and arrive at Reigate Garden Centre for refreshments.

Unlike practically every ride of the last few months, going back outside wasn't an unpleasantly cold experience, in fact it was warm enough that we adopted thinner gloves and tops for the ride home. In keeping with the easy label for the ride, we headed back on a fairly direct route done the ever-enjoyable Lonesome Lane into Horley. From here we rejoined NCN21 back to Gatwick and then spent a few minutes watching the planes struggling on their final approach as they fought a fairly stiff crosswind.

It didn't take us much longer to get back to Three Bridges where we all headed off home in our different directions.

Our next ride starts at 09:00hrs on Sunday 21st April and will go to Winkworth Arboretum (National Trust). We will have enough time to visit the gardens, so bring your membership card if you have one. There is a small cafe just outside the gardens. The weather forecast for Sunday looks good, so come on out.