12 of us set out from Caterham viz. David, Eddie, Gary, John, Liz, Luisa, Peter, Rosemary, Sandy, Stephanie, Tony H and me. There was a considerable attrition rate, only six made it to tea.
We cycled the short distance to Chaldon Church, itself interesting dating from the 11th century, to see the mural. After we'd been admonished by the church cleaner to wipe our feet carefully we went in to see the mural. The mural on the west
wall of Chaldon
church is one of the earliest known English wall paintings – it
dates from about 1200 and is without equal in any other part of Europe. It is
thought to have been painted by a travelling artist-monk. The picture depicts
the ‘Ladder of Salvation of the Human Soul’ together with ‘Purgatory and Hell’.
Wall paintings of this kind were intended as a visual aid to religious
teaching. There's more at:
The group was then subjected to a hour-long lecture by Bernard.
We then went to Epsom Downs to the Derby Arms and had a pleasant lunch in the garden. All the women went to the loo repeatedly, I'm not sure why.
The more spiritual of us admired the view
The less spiritual had a puncture instead, namely Peter, not only a puncture but a disintegration of his tyre as well. After lunch we had a rather unsatisfactory spell on busy roads to the river, I was keen to enjoy the towpath, but the towpath before Kingston is "no cycling". This caused the group to fracture, some went back to the road, some ignored the sign, some did both.
On the way to Petersham nursery guess who we met?
Yes, Christine. She looked well but said she'd given up cycling in favour of walking.
The remaining six of us met up at Petersham which was as charming as ever, and its cakes as delectable. Then we went our separate ways, about 40 miles from North Cheam.
No comments:
Post a Comment