Four riders out today, a small group because some of our usuals were doing a charity ride from London to Brighton. Mick Curtis, Bill Kent, Jenny, and myself leading, set off towards Ewell and the Hogsmill River. Today saw the first signs of Autumn with the temperature around 7°C this morning, however clouds were scarce today and so the visibility was great.
The shortish route took us through Horton Country Park, across Epsom Common and crossed the A24 to access Ashtead Park, where today no moody old lady dog walker was encountered. Despite the recent rain there’s still very little in the way of mud so progress was good. We used a path following the edge of a field to drop down towards Leatherhead and then crossed the River Mole west of the Leisure Centre.
At the cafe Mick refuelled with the usual ‘Full English’ whilst others had various tasty goodies. It then occurred to me that this was the first time I’d visited the cafe since late 2019. I’m glad it survived the lockdowns!
Our route back was a fairly regular one. We tapped our way through the residential back doubles of north Leatherhead before using the footbridge over the M25 car park, and the underpass to get to the A24 Telegraph Hill south of Malden Rushett. The last off road section was crossing Ashtead Common’s westernmost edge to get back to Horton.
The final short bridleway between Rushetts Lane after the Toucan Crossing was blocked by a massive fallen tree and so a little back-tracking and go around was used to get back to Horton Park instead. Bill, Jenny and Mick then continued their ride to Nonsuch Park and home.
Good ride lady & gentlemen,
24 miles for me.