Last of the Summer Wine

The Last Of The Summer Wine or our club ride on Sept 10, 2006.


Club rides at this time of year can be amongst the most enjoyable of the year. The days can be sunny and not too hot, traffic on the roads is lighter as the holiday season is over and we riders are probably at our fittest after a summer of riding. So it was with eager anticipation that eight of us, including new members Russell Hicks and Peter Shearmur plus Steve and Barbara Walter who an hour earlier had landed at Gatwick after a few days in France, left the Angel at 9.30 for Franks ride to Eynsford in Kent. However Barbara soon left us as she was suffering fron jet lag or lack of sleep.

True to form Frank took us up our first hill after about a mile to join the A25 at the top of Redstone Hollow and then onto Bletchingley and up Rabies Heath Road. Now we were into the country lanes passing through Old Godstone with some of the best preserved old houses in the area together with its church and almshouses but soon it was into Flower Lane and the steep climb up onto the Ridge at Woldingham. We followed The Ridge to its junction with Titsey Hill and Clarks Lane which we followed to turn right into Approach Road in which the Retile Centre is situated. Apart from having a collection of aquatic reptiles the Centre also has a café which Frank often frequents when he is leading an off-road ride in the area and as he probably had not met his quota of visits for the year our ride stopped there for a quick cuppa and a cake.

Back in the saddle we carried on through Tatsfield towards Knockholt through some very narrow lanes where we were followed by a convoy of Morris Minors who were obviously on some sort of vintage car event. Younger readers may not know much about the Morris Minor which was a much loved car first made in 1948 and which continued in production into the sixtie. Its probably still being made under license in Asia. Obviously these particular examples were the pamperd toys of some extremely disturbed people. Why anyone would wish to go to the trouble of restoring a Morris Miinor to a better condition than it had ever enjoyed , even when new I cannot imagine. I learned to drive in one and it was awful with a dodgy gear box and rattling bodywork.

We lost the convoy somewhere around Badgers Mount but it caught up with us again as we approached Lullingstone Leisure Park for our official tea stop where we took on fuel for the return leg. After our stop we strolled along the River Derwent which flows through the Park and forms an enormous lake by Lullingstone Castle. Very picturesque and well worth a visit. Leaving the Castle and Roman villa behind we took the narrow lane to Eynsford village centre with its old hump bridge alongside the ford which none of us had the guts to ride through.
From Eynsford our route climbed for about two miles at a comfortable gradient up to West Kingsdown from where we made a very rapid descent down to The Pilgrims Way at Kemsing to be followed by Otford where we again crossed the Derwent. Now we were on familiar territory as The Pilgrims Way roughly follows the line of the M25 and A25 so ignoring the temptation to take the roads on the right which have some vicious climbs we continued through Limpsfieldand and Oxted to rejoin the A25 east of Godstone from where it was a straight run back to Redhill and Reigate.
Unlike the TV programme the participants of our ride were not all retired but lets say they were blokes enjoying themselves in the company of other blokes doing blokeish things as the photos show. Some even thought they were young again as they upped the pace on the way back but everyone echoed the sentiment that it had been a thoroughly enjoyable ride which they would like to repeat at some future date.