B Group Mar 2nd

It was our “Christmas” Lunch so all I had to do was to return almost to where many of us started in North Cheam. I was keen to avoid the busy roads and after the A245, A244 and A243 we escaped on to Ashtead Common along a path marked green on the Surrey Cycle Guide. The key says the green paths are “Offroad routes where it is reasonably comfortable to cycle at any time of year without the need for a mountain bike”. The first couple of miles were super, a good firm surface, open fields to the left, woodland to the right which contained some really old trees. After a bit the path turned south and the surface deteriorated to soggy grass and mud. Norman said, quite wrongly, that we were going round in circles which may have disheartened some. Anyway, I became aware of whinging from behind but chose to ignore it. There was a breakaway, led I suspect by Liz, leaving the rest of us, viz. Harold and me only, to continue. Shortly after we separated the path became excellent, not a scrap of mud! After a fiddly bit through Epsom we got onto another green path, this time tarmac, across playing fields. Then along the A232, turning off at West Drive and the back way into Cheam. I had a bit of luck – I saw a chap with a pressure hose cleaning the road outside a building site and he was kind enough to wash the mud off my bike. I had planned a short ride after lunch but everyone seemed keen to go home, so that was the end of the cycling day.
Regards Bernard