Chiddingstone Castle

Frank led us on a pleasant 20 mile route to Chiddingstone today. The snack van at Three Bridges was doing good business this morning as several of us arrived early and partook of some refreshment. The weather was looking quite good, cloudy but no hint of rain and blue bits poking through. Norman, Anton, Michael, Corinne, Malcolm, Frank, Pat and myself headed east and met Val by the Felbridge Hotel roundabout. We headed along the busy A264 then over to Lingfield and on to Edenbridge where we stopped for a coffee break:

So far we'd only had one hill to climb, near Haxted Mill (which is up for sale) but now we were on some smaller lanes there were a couple more. The lanes were very pleasant and the sun was shining, what more could we want? A beer! Bang on cue, the pub swam around the corner and we dismounted and locked our bikes. We needn't have rushed - the pub wasn't open for another 15 minutes. Not to worry, we could take a short walk through the grounds of Chiddingstone Castle:

Frank, Pat, Corinne and Michael decided to have their lunch at the cafe and the rest of us headed back to the pub. We settled down in a sunny corner of the back garden and enjoyed a nice hour of eating, drinking and chatting.

Eventually it was time to head for home and we retraced our outward route but with the addition of my doing some hands free cycling (well I was concentrating on taking a selfie!!).

Next weekend sees a ride on both Saturday and Sunday as we tackle the whole of The Downs Link: on Saturday we have a 9:30 start from Horsham Pavilions in the Park before going across to the Downs Link and riding the northern section up to Guildford and back. Then on Sunday another 9:30 start from Horsham Pavilions in the Park and we hit the southern section of the Downs Link - we'll ride down to Shoreham and then spend a couple of hours over lunch whilst we watch the aerial displays for Shoreham Airshow. Mountain bikes or strong touring bikes are recommended for both days.