Sunday 24th September turned out to be a glorious day for a bike ride. And where better to head for than the coast! So off we set from Petersfield – that is Derek and Anne, David and Helen, Angela, Peter, Roger and your scribe, along with course creator and ride leader Hilary.
It’s always good to get away from one’s home area and it seems to me that groups are doing ‘train assisted’ rides more often these days. Personally I hope it’s a taste of more to come.
Hilary found some beautiful lanes to get us to coffee at Stansted House, which is a delightful place to stop for refreshments, after which the route flattened out as we continued south. It wasn’t long before we reached Bosham to find that the tide was out, allowing us to ride round the shore road. It was all highly photogenic ….
We still had about an hour to go to lunch, and Hilary had organised lunch at Houghton, where the Hare and Hounds was serving mildly-gastro-oriented pub grub at near gastro pub prices. The food was well presented, quickly served and plentiful so it gets the nod from us. Roger very kindly treated us to drinks so we could toast his birthday one day ahead: Happy Birthday, Roger and thanks for the drink – the beer had much more flavour than the lamb.
I’d seen a signpost saying Petersfield was about ten miles away, so it was with a certain degree of surprise that I saw another sign showing a similar mileage some while later, but no matter…. The sun had gone in and there were even a few drops of the wet stuff in the air, but Hilary’s return route was proving to be equally as enjoyable as the way out and I, for one, was sad that it was ever going to end.
But end it did of course, back at Petersfield, where some headed home by car, and the others on the train. Thanks, Hilary, for a great day out. (And thank you, Curly Hetchins, for giving me such a lovely ride – I should ride you more!)
Where we went is shown below; 50 miles almost with 750 metres of climbing. For a closer look at the route, you can click on this link: https://www.strava.com/activities/1199652458
Even more upset now I’ve seen the pictures that I couldn’t join you in such a nice area.
Great pictures Mark, great route Hilary – thanks to you both and to every one for making a grand day out.
Helen
Thanks for the account Mark……….and a big thanks to Hilary for origanising,leading and arranging for the weather to have a warm southerly breeze throughout the day.
Peter