Leatherhead to Hook for Xmas Lunch
It's only five miles to lunch
Christmas lunch at the Cap in Hand
In no particular order...
Leatherhead to Hook is just over 5 miles as the crow flies, which is not very much to work up an appetite or thirst, more a sedative to lull the brain and bones into a soporific state of fluffy inertia. We therefore shot the crow, turned our back on Hook and headed south, with a swoop down to Mickelham before a fairly steady upward angle of inclination, starting at Box Hill School. With a glimpse of the Broadwood Folly above Juniper Hall, former home of the Broadwood family, we started the climb of Little Switzerland, which is so much more attractive than the zig-zags, with an intimate and changing spectacle of woodland, farms, fields and hillside, yet without the constant, irritable buzz of the impatient combustion engine.
At the top we enjoyed the newly resurfaced section of the Cycleway Link that is Tumber Street and Slough Lane to emerge at Headley, with another long swoop behind Headley Court down Headley Lane to the City of London Freeman's School in Ashtead Park and the evocatively named Pleasure Pit Road. Past the RAC Club, we skirted Epsom town to Stamford Green. Surrounded now by suburbia, Manor Green Road took us to Hook Road. A final improvisation led us to the light-controlled pedestrian crossing that enabled us to cross the A243 without having to report anybody MIA and the final few hundred yards to the Cap in Hand, to arrive at 12.29 pm. for our well earned lunch.
Good food, good beer, even if a bit strong for me, and good company provided a fitting conclusion to the last Midweek Wayfarers' ride of 2013. Our warmest thanks go to the irrepressible Pam for organising our lunch and, as always, keeping us smiling with her infectious laugh.
Here's to a happy, healthy, accident-free and exciting year of new cycling adventures in 2014.
Jeff
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