February 7th 2010 – not Woodmansterne again!

Yes, its Woodmansterne Green again. A nice place but we're getting bored of it.

Well, yes, Woodmansterne again and we discussed how we need to do something more than what we're doing at present as it's all getting a bit samey: Woodmansterne Green, basically, is too boring a venue. Yesterday was good fun in Merstham but we need to do more. The problem is multi-faceted: time is a big issue. To do more than we're doing now will take up more time. Then there's the whole issue of doing more off-road riding. Well, yes, we can, but there aren't that many places round here where you can go off-road, bar little bursts of it, ie en route to Westerham, Westerham Woods, Banstead Woods (where many 'quiet coach' people lurk) and odd little footpaths at the road side, like the tiny bits on the way to Woodmansterne Green.

The only way we can really make things 'different' is if we invest more time and get to grips with cycle racks on the back of our cars. I say 'invest more time', to be honest, I don't have more time and nor does anybody else so it's got to be down to using cars or trains to reach new places, like Richmond Park.

Equally, we need to revisit past venues more often: Westerham, the Tatsfield Bus Stop, Dunton Green, Chevening Lake, Knockholt.

Where 'off-roading' is concerned, I figure we're not going to get much joy out of it. Most of our cycling, by virtue of our location in the UK and the world, is, at best, going to be rural roads, like those encountered on the Black Horse ride or en route to Chevening Lake (Pilgrim's Lane, for instance). We have never gone 'off-road' for more than a few yards and on some of those occasions it's been very tough, ie thick mud, getting off and walking the bike and so on.

The only answer I can see is to have one 'different' event every month so that, say, a four-week period might look like this:

Week One: Westerham.

Week Two: Chevening Lake.

Week Three: Tatsfield Bus Stop

Week Four: Richmond Park

and then Week Five Woodmansterne Green.

I say that next week we go to Merstham on Saturday (because the caff's open) and then on Sunday go to Westerham Woods. Thoughts?