Sunday Ride: 9th August 2015

A beautiful warm and sunny day but was everybody on holiday. We could muster only six though this did include Ruth making her second outing with the Sundays.

Things were different from the start. We hung an immediate left up Purley Downs Road for the unknown (to me) lands of New Addington. Hopping dual carriageways on cycleways soon brought us into countryside with the odd imposition of outer suburbia. Really good to discover another way into Kent and our first of eight crossings of the M25 stranglehold on London. Lullingstone Golf Club was short on cake but delivered really good sausage and bacon baps/sandwiches at fair prices,

The plan was The Bull, Otford for lunch. But Otford is not far. Hence no surprise on passing through Shoreham that we should take a roundabout route to give them time to open. The roundabout got bigger and bigger. In fact we were heading for The Stanhope Arms, Brasted. At least I knew I was there. Some folks thought we were drinking back in Otford!

At least the return was shorter. A consensus saw us taking the longer more relaxed route back through Marden Park rather than the thankless slog up Clarkes Lane to Botley. The map below is slightly deceptive as it is from Sydenham to Sydenham and includes a train ride from Whyteleafe South as I had a family event to get back to …