A ride around some rather nice Kent lanes with a simple pub lunch planned at a rather hidden pub with great beer and cider from the barrel.

For some rather nice pics and a report on the last time we did this ride, check out the gallery for January 12, 2008.

Lunch stop is over half way through the 33 mile ride so bring the odd snack if you like to keep you going up the odd hill.

Pace moderate – I’ll just be pushing to ensure that we get to the pub by 1pm latest as food stops at 1:30 and Eddie the landlord is not one to mess with. Please check your tyres for debris before the ride (pick out any bits of glass or thorns that are burrowing their way through) to minimise chances of punctures.

If we get there particularly early, hey, more cider.

Mumsy advice – bring a decent lock which you are happy to entrust your bike to as we will have to lock the bikes outside to each other while we sit inside by the wood-burning stove. Check your brakes as there is one very steep downhill. Bring warm layers – it can be far colder in Kent than balmy Lewisham.

Bring lights of course.

Ride suitable for any bike.

Total distance about 33 miles.

Meet ticket office at Catford railway station at 8:40 for the 9:02 train to Otford, arriving there at 09:37  – arrive early to maximise your chances of a Groupsave discount – tickets can be surprisingly cheap from here – last time those on Groupsave got there and back for £2.85.

NB: NOT Catford Bridge. Catford is the one of the two side-by-side stations closest to Forest Hill, just opposite the Halfords in the retail park. To get there, head round the South Circular or go straight down the Waterlink Way. Check it out on old London Cycling map 15 or numbers 10 or 11 of new ones

More info from Paul: 07957 209322 – NO TEXTS - I love your voice

Report

Nine of us altogether on the ride – a mixture of folks who got on at Catford, Bromley South and met us at Otford. Those who nabbed a Groupsave from Catford got the return to Otford for a mere £3.

Forecast for the night before had been for minus 1 in Kent rising to about 8 or 9 during the day but as we got off the train at around 9:40 there was still some ice on the platform.

The usual greetings between our motley crew - some turn up only every 2 or 3 months but are well known – and then off.

Survived the steep descent at Underriver, then off through some lanes. In places large amounts of water on the road and I commented to someone that if it had been anything like this the day I cancelled my Oxted and back ride a couple of weeks ago (minus 4 overnight and still zero at noon in London) we’d have had serious problems.

Spoke to soon – a mysterious slight spin on my rear wheel was followed by a clatter and I look backed to see that Andrij had gone down on some ice. Bike and rider unharmed, so we invited Andrew to ride over the same patch of ice on his studded tyres. They performed admirably and he stayed upright. Unfortunately for Andrew the rest of the ride wasn’t on a glacier and after a while he began to tire because of the increased rolling resistance. As he toiled away tank-like towards the back he could be heard approaching long before he was seen. Scrunch scrunch. If anyone who couldn’t make it wants to follow our route, just follow the distressed road surface.

Through Leigh, which we were due to double back through, I saw a yellow sign. “Road flooded” it said but it looked as if it had been there a while and as the weather of late hadn’t seemed too extreme I thought it had just been kept in place. Anyway, we all know how wimpy cars can be and “road closed” rarely blocks a bike.

So on we went, veering left towards Penshurst where a white van (sometimes just sometimes the cliches are true) ran very close to us. William gave it a suitable sign and the driver reversed to debate the issue. Window wound down and when I approached to check things out the driver was telling William that we had been riding five abreast. Er, I don’t thing so – more likely the driver was just annoyed to find five folks in a row ever so slightly impeding his progress. Still, ever so curiously, the driver seemed willing to debate the points with William. I put this down to his natural air of authority.

On to Penshurst. Left through the traffic free path towards the road leading back to Leigh. Descending towards the road, Andrij fell again. Still no harm other than bruising. Maybe his bike knew what was coming and was trying to bail out.

Further down we hit a large expanse of water. Definitely not a water feature – a flood. A walker advised us that the road ahead was under water and that the gates at either end of the dip that is prone to regular flooding had been closed.  She thought it possible that we might be able to get over these but we weren’t sure how deep the water was.

Quick checking of Ordnance Survey map. Reluctant to follow same route back to Leigh and though there was a possibility of adding more road miles with a large loop we might well have been late for the Golding Hop’s somewhat unforgiving food hours. Myself and William decided to take an ever so handy footpath that the kindly (or devilish) Ordnance Survey folk had marked.

Footpath found. Not too bad, a sort of surface, going in the right direction. Unfortunately the path became a muddy field. Bikes and cleats pretty muddied, but we too far in to turn back, so onwards it was. Some grass after a while made things better but then we came to a barbed wire fence. Oh hell.

Delicately, ever so delicately (only one woman with us today) we eased ourselves over. Miracle of miracles once we had passed through some more mud, we hit the right road.

Stopped in Leigh to call Eddie at the Golding Hop who was pretty scathing about our navigation and insisted that we’d be there in half an hour. This I doubted (a mixed bunch of riders) but Eddie agreed to serve us whenever we got there. Much flogging of riders followed, passed on the opportunity to see Ightham Mote moated manor house (next time – well worth a look), we climbed the steep hill that faces you after it and then hot-pedalled it to meet up with Jan who had gone ahead.

We found Eddie amused by our progress but he kept to his word and fed us. Great food Sonya. Eddie even brought us some water from the outside spring to fill our water bottles. He hadn’t totally softened though. One of our party, henceforth to be known as “the woman who asked for tea” was met with the swift retort: “We’re a pub, not a restaurant”. So most folks dived into the local cider, of an assortment of strengths up to 7.3, not that they needed all that much encouragement.

After lunch, a slightly more stately progress than I would have liked – just missed a train – but despite the day’s somewhat unplanned escapades we still made it along the Pilgrim’s Way back to Otford before sundown. And Eddie was nice to us. So all in all a good day – thanks to everyone who came. Hope to see you again. Less mud next time. Honest.

Paul