Here's this week's news and reports....

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RIDE REPORT
The Forest Way Loop 16/08/09

A perfect 8 riders at East Croydon for the "4 for 2" Group Save ticket
buy and another 4 on the train made a nice total of 12 out today. Lazy
planning had the route going from Edenbridge Town station when in
fact, the train arrived at nearby Edenbridge instead. Never mind, we
were on the beautiful rural lanes within a minute, heading toward the
Yew Tree Way. The highlight of this signposted cycling loop is St
Piers Lane, a flat single-lane country road that bisects the National
Centre For Young People With Epilepsy campus. We tried and a new
morning stop at the Occasionally Yours garden centre at Lingfield and
had the place to ourselves when we arrived. The staff were friendly
and cake slices were particularly generous. We'll be using this one
again!

The next leg involved a length of the Forest Way, a converted railway
line. Unfortunately, to get there involved a few unexpected climbs.
Eventually we picked the route up just north of Forest Row and rode 4
peaceful miles towards Hartfield, our lunch destination. I often think
that riding on Sustrans' dirt roads is what William Cobbet might have
experienced on his Rural Rides. I like to think we are carrying the
flag for his ethos of seeing the countryside in its natural setting
and not using the 'turnpike' roads.

The Hay Waggon pub at Hartfield was an excellent choice with a nice
beer garden, fast service, good food and a wide variety suitable for
all pockets. If they could remove the wasps, the place would be
perfect! We had a vote after lunch to see who wanted to detour to see
Pooh Bridge. Hartfield, after all, was home to AA Milne and the
stories were all set locally. A unanimous decision saw us heading off
up another hill, stopping on the way to visit Pooh Corner, a gift shop
on the site of the original shop where Christopher Robin came on the
back of a donkey with his nanny to buy bullseyes sweets.

The bridge isn't signposted from the direction we approached.
Motorists face a much longer walk from a car park on the other side of
the valley. Our route was a tarmac private lane until we turned off
onto a bridleway. If we'd carried on, we would have arrived at
Cotchford Farm, the Milne family home. Instead, we chucked a few
sticks into the stream, soaked up the view and pedalled off back up
the hill. A mechanical stoppage caused us to notice a small child
ringing a bell attached to a tree. He had found the House At Pooh
Corner!!! A really neat idea where a small door and bell have been set
into the trunk of a tree. We didn't have any honey sandwiches we could
leave and despite the constant ringing, Pooh just wasn't going to
answer the door!

After another bit of Forest Way, we turned off at Bells Green and then
the hills really hit. We were heading for Chiddingstone but progress
was slow and the sun was blazing. We just about made it to the castle
before their Victorian tearoom closed. At this point we were clocking
up a higher mileage than the advertised route (it was a combination of
my morning re-routing and the Pooh Bridge diversion) so we decided to
pick up the train from Hever, about 3 miles away. The hills hadn't
levelled out but we just about managing to catch the hourly train.

36 miles, out for 8hrs. See the pix on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157621932405803
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc070

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RIDE REPORT
Gardeners Delight 15/08/09

Only 4 riders on a very short local ride to the open day at Spa Hill
allotments. We picked our way through back streets to Biggin Wood and
onto the site. It was a large scale event with stalls and a music
stage. As independently managed allotments, they've got quite a lot
going for them including a wind turbine and a hall which houses a
cafe. We drank tea and ate cakes before joining a guided tour of the
site which was really informative. Nosing around the plots was quite
interesting with a heavy Jamaican influence judging by the amount of
sweetcorn and calaloo growing.

See some pix on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157621932303931
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc071

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RIDE REPORT
Beddington Park Cycle Rides 15/08/09

14 riders out on a lovely sunny afternoon for a meandering route over
to Nonsuch Park. These rides are the 3rd Saturday of the month and are
slightly slower than PHC rides. Ideal for those testing the water.
Next one is 19th September. Details at:

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk/beddingtonpark

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4th PLINTH PIX

Here are some more images from Robert's alternative Bristol ride to
the 4th Plinth at Trafalgar Square:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pollardshillcyclists/sets/72157621887742539
or
http://tinyurl.com/phc069

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A WORD ABOUT THE HILLS

I'd advertised today's ride as having a couple of short but sharp
hills but generally fairly level. This turned out to be a pretty poor
guess. Instead we had some tough climbs and I wished I'd described it
as "hilly".

Obviously, as I'm sure everyone will appreciate, it isn't practical to
offer a different ride every week and then go out and ride it
beforehand. My current method is to take the sections I know into
account (which were flattish for this ride) and then try to deduce the
rest by looking at contour lines on an OS maps. It's easy to see
really steep hills but not so easy to spot long tough drags.

Therefore, from today, if a ride has not been fully recce'd, it will
be noted as an 'Explorer' on the ride listings. That means you all
know that you're in the same boat as me! If we come up against
unexpected climbs then we're all in trouble together. Although it's
not fair on those relying on the descriptions, I do think the 'mini
adventure' aspect to our rides is quite appealing. I'd rather do this
than try and 'grade' rides which I'm not keen on.

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WEBSITE PROBLEMS

I've had 4 people tell me that the website is out of date. It isn't. I
don't know why this is happening all of a sudden but the cure is to
hit Refresh whilst holding down the CTRL key or the SHIFT key. That
should give you the latest version.

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NEXT WEEK

Nobody volunteered to lead a PHC ride so we're joining up with the
Central London CTC at Cheam. Get the 9:53 from Mitcham Eastfields,
arriving in Cheam at 10:09. Fares could be as low as £1.75 but you'll
need to buy them at Cheam because Mitcham Eastfields isn't manned on
Sundays and the ticket machine cannot calculate Group Save discounts.
We've joined Lynda's excellent rides many times before and they're run
to the same pace as a PHC ride.

Mark
PHC Co-ordinator
07711 688189

http://www.pollardshillcyclists.org.uk
http://www.southlondoncyclists.org.uk