Dramatic skies...but we avoid a soaking

Moody skies. Taken from the Tatsfield Bus Stop, Saturday 1st February

A funny old day weatherwise. One minute it all looked fine, the next it was raining. When I left the house at 0730hrs it was fine, although it had been raining through the night. As I rode up Church Way, feeling surprisingly sprightly, and on to the Gruffy at the foot of Sanderstead High Street, evidence of the downpour was clear for all to see: puddles, wet roads, you name it. But as I rode towards Warlingham Green the weather was fine and remained so until we, that is Andy and I, reached the Tatsfield Bus Stop, when the skies turned grey and moody and soon the rain began to fall. At one stage it was even snowing! Seriously.

Oddly, while we could take shelter at the bus stop, the heavy rain during the night must have been horizontal – due to heavy winds – as the seat on which we normally sit was soaked through so we stood up to drink our tea – a first for NoVisibleLycra at Tatsfield (we've stood up to drink our tea on many occasions elsewhere – the car park beyond Botley Hill, Botley Hill itself, Westerham when the seats are wet and so on) but never at the Tatsfield bus stop.

The rain stopped and then started again and we passed the time drinking tea, munching cereal bars and chatting to a very friendly Lycra Monkey who stopped by for a breather en route to Westerham.

Westerham. Now there's a place we haven't visited for a while and, you may well ask why. Well, the answer is simple: later starts. And what do later starts make? Shorter rides. We've been meeting for the past few weeks at 8am on the Green and this has considerably cramped our style. Taking the long or the short route to the Tatsfield Bus Stop means getting home at roughly the same time as when we used to ride to Westerham and, if I'm honest, I'm missing the old place. Tatsfield Bus Stop can get a little tedious after a while, even if we have been enjoying our 'longer way round' route up Beddlestead Lane.

So next weekend we're going to get out early and ride to Westerham, making tomorrow the last of the late rides – and we're going to mum's – although next week I know I'm going to regret going back to early starts as later rides make everything less of an ordeal, less of a wrench from the warmth of my bed. We'll see how things go.

Looking east towards Westerham from the Tatsfield Bus Stop