Pete Beyer had very kindly offered to lead today's ride from Walton-on-the-Hill to Leigh, so a genuine 'bike adventure' was guaranteed!
As a first step, Pete introduced us to new elevenses venue, 'Pedals and Paws Coffee Pod', intriguingly tucked away down a windy lane round the back of Walton pond. The service was very friendly and the coffee excellent and very reasonably priced! Chris H joined Pete, Andy, Keith and me for elevenses, then went his own way home. Perhaps he had inside information!
Pete had said there would be 'a few tracks', and lulled us into a false sense of security by appearing on his road bike. Imagine our surprise and delight then when he led us down a vertiginous, chalky track leading from Colley Hill to Reigate! The ruts would have made it fairly difficult to ride anyway, but overnight rain had added an extra frisson to the hard-packed chalk surface, adding to our delight! But the views were spectacular, and it was well worth the effort!
At Dungates Lane, Buckland, we paused at a very pretty corner to entertain some very friendly Labradors and buy some eggs (as you do)!
We had already passed one unusual windmill (the windmill church at Reigate Heath), but the next one followed in quick succession, and was even more quirky - a fully-working, miniature windmill, built on top of someone's house, which powers a sawmill! 'Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel', as my old granny used to say! Oh, the windmills of you mind!
After that, it was back to normal roads for the last part of the ride to Leigh, and a good lunch at the ever-excellent Plough at Leigh. Heavy, thundery rain punctuated the ride home, but that was the only disappointment on this excellent ride! Many thanks, Pete!
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