B Group - 11th March

The elevenses location was scheduled to be Addlestone Day Centre but they had concern about Coronavirus reports, so the Wayfarers relocated to the nearby Tesco store and to Costa across the road.

When the B group finally assembled we only had ten riders as the proposed route was not the flavour of the day.

I had a fault in my mental compass and did not know where we were but Tim came to the rescue with his Memory-Map app and we headed off in the right direction to join the River Wey towpath at New Haw. This towpath is normally quite ride-able but the Environment Agency/National Trust are maintaining the path level by dredging the canal and dumping the earth and rocks on the path. Overtime it beds down but try riding a road bike two rainy days after the work so we got off to a muddy slow start. A sensible person would have used the road alternative ????

But once we had crossed the bridge onto the Basingstoke Canal we made reasonable progress. A section of the canal has been completely drained for major work and one can appreciate digging that enormous hole with a spade. We left the canal at West Byfleet and took a direct route through the lanes to the foot of the North Downs at East Clandon, passing the Alpaca farm in Tannery Lane. Sue and Grant turned off and so eight riders climbed Combe Bottom and descended to Shere. We followed the Hilly 50 route via Hoe Lane(s) to the Volunteer Pub which was the obvious choice for lunch, but the pub will not take a booking for more than seven unless a firm booking is made two days before. So we climbed again to the Abinger Hatch Pub which is in a perfect Surrey setting next the the old church.

Mike Morley was well into his lunch and asked why we had taken so long to get to lunch. The food was good and plentiful and served promptly so no complaints. 

We headed up over Leith Hill and through Coldharbour, where we had wonderful clear views of the Surrey countryside as the trees are not yet in leaf, and enjoyed the descent into Dorking. Terry took over and led us round Dorking centre via Cotmandene with lovely views, finding a few more hills on the way to tea at Leatherhead. I had never been over Cotmandene before in my 70 years (almost) of riding the Surrey lanes

Thanks for the company, and thanks to Tim for back marking, and to all the corner markers especially Mark who did the majority. 

Ken

Thanks to Mark for this photo

Thanks for a great ride Ken. Much of our

favourite terrain and a good lunch at a pub

we hadn't visited for a quite a while.

Mileage: 33.33 miles

Elevation gain: 2205 ft

(according to Strava)

~ Tim