Seventeen riders turned up for the new start point at Godstone Green,taking the path alongside Bay Pond and heading East we turned up the hill at Godstone Church to cross the A25 going north up the hill over the motorway where we turned right onto the bridleway for a steep climb towards Woldingham ridge,at the top of the hill its all downhill on the North Downs Way (complete with speed humps) to Flower Lane where a sharp left turn takes us to the top of the ridge.
A short section of road took us once again to the North Downs Way ,we were unable to take in the views because of the mist.
From the car park at South Hawk we took the road along the ridge to Southview Road where we turned left down ito the valley,a couple of right turns took us onto into the valley bottom to Warren Barn Farmwhere we took the Upland Road Track back towards Limsfield Road.We had a couple of new riders along with us,Tony who I think has come back to riding and Stefan Gary,s partners brother (I think) and we slowed down a bit on this part of the ride to enable them to keep up.
At the top of the track we made on left turn using the cycle track turning into Beech Farm Road and shortly after this going onto the bridleapath on the right just past the radio mast on our left.
This bridlepath is little used,certainly there were no signs of cyclists having used it,it descends steeply into a valley and its very narrow,when we got to the bottom and the next climb came into view I couldn’t help smiling when I heard the reaction from behind me.
Matt has a device on his bike that records gradients and he told me after the climb it had shown 60% (see pic). Some brave souls actually had a go at it,the one who got the furthest was Dave and he managed about 15feet.
Having pushed to the top the track became very muddy and quite difficult but eventually we reached the road at Beddlestead Farm.
Turning right for a short distance brought us to a bridleway on the left,the farmer has ploughed over the first hundred yards og the path so it was down to carrying the bikes over this part (never a dull moment) and so we crossed the field on a very narrow track,through a gate and a sharp descent brought us to th e bottom of another steep climb,this time the bridlepath has not been used at all although its marked on the map a going straight up,most riders got off only one (Dave again) zig zagging his way to the top.
From here it’s a right turn into the lane into Tatsfield village where another right takes us West through Approach Road to the Beaver Gardens.
We stopped for tea etc in the appropiateley named Gator Caff (tea,egg on toast £2-20)
As we were by now pretty muddied there was plenty of space for us in the summer room.
After quite a long break during which Xavier repaired the only puncture of the day we set off towards home ,the route taking us back to the South Hawk car park via Botley Hill,Woldingham Road turning right onto the Vanguard Way at Flint House to the bottom ov the valley,turning left took us back to Woldingham road via Southfield Road.
From the car park take the bridleway towards Marden Park and the NCR 21 from there back to Godstone Green.(the cycle way at the bottom of the A22 has its own dedicated route through the roudabout complex)
Distance covered about 20 miles.Time 3-4 hours