A group 18 Sept - The Milk Churn, Rudgwick

Cool air, hot sun: a perfect Autumn day.  Technicolour trees, just beginning to turn yellow and brown.  Only this wasn't a technicolour representation, it was the real thing, in 3D, with fresh air, sounds and a full-body physical experience to go with it.  You'd pay a lot in a cinema for that, but we had somehow managed to get in free.  Reasonably priced food and drink too.  As a consequence, there were loads of riders at Walton for elevenses, including 18 A group riders.   We were pleased to welcome new rider Sebastian, who regularly rides with Hans, Mike and Trevor on a Saturday.

It was a ride of two halves.   First, we wanted to stake our claim on Muddy Lane, previously a footpath but recently reclassified as a bridleway following a long campaign.  It wasn't muddy, and it definitely wasn't a lane, still being equipped with serious gates at either end to enforce its previous existence as a footpath, and with nettles and brambles making it only just comfortable to ride along - but this will change as the council implement the decision.   We picked our way past the sewage works - it's not a beautiful lane, but it is an important way through from Weybridge to Wisley and Pyrford Lock, so I think it will get considerable use once properly open.

The second half of the ride involved hills - not many, but the ascent of Hungry Hill, Staple Lane and then Pitch Hill filled our senses for quite a while.   Keith had the bonus experience of a puncture, so a small group stayed with him while the rest of us continued on to Ewhurst and enjoyed standing around in the sunshine, outside the pub, but not the one we were going to.   It was lunchtime but we still had a few miles to go.

The third half, in fact the rest of the ride, was through the undulating lanes south of the hills.  We followed the sun directly south to Rudgwick and arrived at the sunny and busy cafe, the Milk Churn.   It's a sort of farm cafe, specialising in cheese on toast, with cheese made locally from their own cows.  A big queue to order raised concerns about how long we take over lunch, but they have an efficient system and after apologising for a potential delay, in fact the food came out pretty quickly, and just gave us enough time to visit the Firebird brewery across the way and buy a pint.

Say "Cheese"

26 miles down and still 20 to go to tea.  It was quite a quick ride to tea - apologies for that, but I blame Janice and Patrick, who were sitting just behind me chatting away as if they were out on a social ride.  Honestly!  There was also the odd mini-breakaway with Steve and Patrick pushing the pace a bit further.  Hans and Sebastian had to leave after lunch, and Ken made his own way home shortly afterwards (probably over Leith Hill).  Keith had a recurrence of his puncture and Neil stopped to give him plenty of helpful advice (according to Neil, that is).

All the roads seemed remarkably quiet today, and a succession of corner markers made the ride flow well, especially Neil, Janice, Neil, Ged, Neil again, and several others.   A nice ride up Weare Street to Newdigate, and then through Parkgate to Brockham, where we arrived in plenty of time to sit outside in a puddle of sweat (or was that just me?) enjoying tea, cake and good company.   Priceless.

Thanks to Pete Beyer and the Cheam & Morden section for introducing me to the Milk Churn cafe, thank you all for your company, and special thanks to Mike Reynell for back-marking.


PS.  On the return from tea, Mike R also suffered a puncture in Ashtead common - a cut in the sidewall of his (tubeless) tyre which didn't want to self-heal, so a tube had to be put in to fix it.