B Group - 7 May - Cobham-Holmbury Saint Mary-Dorking (Denbies)

On Wednesday 7^th May, I led 27 cyclists from Cobham to the Royal Oak Pub, in Holmbury Saint Mary. We went up Cobham Park Road, through Bookham Woods, Effingham and up through the woods, carpeted with bluebell, towards White Down where we passed a number of cyclists struggling upwards. At this stage, we lost Stephanie with brake problems. Although Francoise and Tim waited for a while at the next junction, unfortunately Stephanie was not seen again.

We continued via Raikes Lane and up to Holmbury Saint Mary. It was good to see Terry and his wife joining us for lunch. Having pre-ordered our choices, we were all served in a reasonable time and the food was better than the average.

After lunch we proceeded to Forest Green, Capel, Newdigate, Henfold Lakes before turning right heading towards Brockham and eventually Denbies for tea.

The leader admitted that his new bike only cost £299 and Bernard remarked that Frank was parsimonious. This is a word not commonly used these days and is perhaps more often encountered in period dramas. Anyhow it is a nicer word than “stingy, mean, miserly, frugal, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, penurious”, to name but a few. Even though it is a low-cost bike, the aluminium frame and 30 gears perform surprisingly well. It would go even better if Frank could lose a stone from his waist!

Thank you for joining me on a mainly traffic free ride in the beautiful Surrey woods. By a good stroke of fortune, we managed to avoid the downpours during lunch and tea.

A round trip of 60 miles for F & F.

Frank