Covid closes Costa and other stories...

Last week was arguably the best week of cycling in terms of the distance covered, a cool 143 miles, just over, but I didn't ride every day of the week as I did the week before, albeit shorter distances, ie many Washpond Weebles. Last week involved rides to Westerham, a ride to a place called Pratt's Bottom and a ride to Shoreham in Kent, which was kind of a mistake, but it worked out a better ride than the one I had intended to do. I set off with the idea of riding first to a place called Twitton and then riding a little further to Otford, but in the end, I turned left instead of right, then saw a sign for the HoneyPot Tearooms (in Shoreham) and the rest is history. In fact, the Shoreham ride is the longest undertaken on Strava, or so they tell me.

The end of Ivy Lane where I turned right...

I loved Shoreham. It's a very pleasant and quaint little village and the HoneyPot Tearooms was perfect. The ride, in total, was a tad over 38 miles, roughly 20 miles each way and, as I said, my longest ride on Strava. I followed the route I would take for Dunton Green (along Pilgrims Lane, past the turn-offs for Chevening Lake, on the right, and Chevening House, on the left) and then, just outside of Dunton Green, I took a left turn and once past the Donnington Hotel, I turned right on to Ivy Lane and followed what turned out to be a very narrow country lane that was perfect for bicycles, but I wouldn't fancy my chances in a car. At the end of what was a very pleasant roll I arrived at a T-junction and joined the Pilgrims Way. At first I turned right and then, unsure that I was travelling in the right direction, I turned around and followed the road in the opposite direction until I saw a sign for the HoneyPot Tearooms. Had I remained on my original course I would have found Twitton and then, of course, Otford, but when I saw the sign for the tearooms I thought, mistakenly, that it would be in the centre of Twitton, but it turned out to be Shoreham. Little did I know, but I had travelled further than I might have done had I gone to Twitton, but it doesn't matter. This all means that a ride to Twitton and Otford will probably be done next week, possibly Saturday, as I'm back at work now and won't be as free as I have been over the past fortnight (I was on holiday, thanks for asking).

Tearoom sign sent me to Shoreham

A few kind words about the HoneyPot Tearooms: I ordered a slice of lemon cake and a paper mug of tea. The weather was perfect for cycling, not too hot, but bright and sunny and warm and I enjoyed just sitting there, in the fresh air under a kind of canopy, but not in the main tearooms, which were closed off. There were other customers: a young couple with a small dog who had a couple of hours without their young children who were with their grandparents. They told an older couple about their plans to holiday in Tenerife over the next few days, just a week, but I'm guessing a much-needed break. There was also a dad with his two young children and a couple who stopped by for something, I can't remember what they ordered as I was too busy with my own tea and cake.

Soon it was time to head back home, but before doing so I rode through Shoreham and then turned around and rode out of town on the same road I'd arrived on, Filston Lane. I turned left on to Pilgrims Way and then right on to Ivy Lane and when I reached the Donnington Hotel I turned right and followed the road to the roundabout where I turned left and rode towards Chevening on Sundridge Lane, taking a right turn on to Ovenden Road and then another left on to the all-too-familiar Pilgrims Lane, which took me to the foot of the hill out of Westerham. The rest of the ride was a 'known known' and I must have reached home around 1pm, it was Saturday afternoon.

The Honey Pot Tea Rooms in Shoreham, Kent

Earlier in the week, I think it was Wednesday, I headed for a place called Pratt's Bottom. You might be seeing a theme developing: Twitton, Pratt's Bottom, and that was the idea, to visit places with funny names that I'd spotted on the map. Anyway, I rode the normal way towards Westerham for this ride, but instead of going down the hill I followed the off-road track that passes the Park Wood Golf Club, taking the left fork (not the right) and then being faced with a choice: crossing the road and taking either the left or right fork. I chose the former and rode along Buckhurst Road to Cadham and again found myself with a dilemma: do I turn left or right? Had I turned right I would have eventually found the place I was intending to visit (Knockholt) but as there was nobody around to ask and no signs, I turned left and rolled my way towards a place called Green Street Green. After a little faffing around I followed signs to Pratt's Bottom and initially stopped to buy mineral water, but a queue meant that I ditched both on a shelf near the exit and left, slightly peeved. I crossed the road and followed a road into Knockholt where I found a convenience store. There I purchased a Snickers and a bottle of Evian. By now the rain had started, but fortunately it was warm so it didn't really matter. In fact, it had started to pour down long before I reached Knockholt and continued for some time. I rode along Main Road and eventually took a left turn down Sundridge Lane, taking a right into Pilgrims Lane and then riding home the usual route. Coming back from Shoreham I had approached Pilgrims Lane from the other direction and turned left into Pilgrims Lane, but coming back from Knockholt I was on the same road, just travelling downhill and not uphill.

Lemon cake and tea at the Honey Pot

Another ride that will have to be done at a later date is Lord Chatham's Ride, which is near to Knockholt and Knockholt Pound; it's a track that runs through a wood close to Sundridge Lane and then sweeps round on itself and finishes at the back of Chevening House. I think it might be a pleasant ride through the woods, hence my interest. I returned home from my Knockholt ride around 1pm.

Other than Shoreham and Pratt's Bottom/Knockholt I made a couple of trips to Westerham. In fact, unlike the week prior when I rode every day of the week, last week saw just five rides and two days off, but the mileage was such that I managed a much higher weekly total.

The Costa Coffee in Westerham was closed all week and I found out on Sunday that it was due to four staff members testing positive for COVID. This meant that I had to drink tea and eat cake from the Tudor Rose and I think I might have mentioned in my last post that the value for money there is pretty poor, so I was glad when I found that Costa had re-opened on Sunday. Andy and I sat outside. I ordered large tea and a cinnamon Danish, but I messed up last week as I'd already enjoyed a home-made Biscoff Millionaire's Shortbread during the week at Flavours in Warlingham and the aforementioned lemon cake in the HoneyPot Tearooms on Saturday – not good.

I've yet to experience Lord Chatham's Ride

As for future rides, I'm going to have to work something out as I'm back at work three days a week from today (2nd August 2021); this means that I won't be able to devote so much time to riding the bike, certainly not on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. That said I'm considering riding to work tomorrow, but I've considered it before and not bothered, let's see. I know there might be rain tomorrow evening, which won't be very pleasant on the uphill return journey and those nasty hills (White Hill Lane and Tithepit Shaw Lane), but I might give it a go. But how to maintain a healthy 80 miles per week? Okay, there's Sunday's Westerham Ride (circa 22 miles) then there's my Saturday ride (which could be circa 30-38 miles) - what's that? A minimum of 52 miles plus 25 miles if I ride two midweek Weebles (Thursday and Friday) so 52 plus 25 = 77 miles, not bad, just three miles off of my magical 80 miles (for ultra respectability). Perhaps if one of my rides is the Beddlestead/Woldingham circuit, that would do it! So it's possible, but it wouldn't give me the satisfaction of not paying the extortionate train fares. I think I'll have to adopt a suck it and see approach, see how I feel, what the weather's like and then take a chance on riding in. I better shut up talking about it otherwise I'll start boring people when I continually don't ride to work and end up making excuses instead.

Twitton and Otford? Maybe next week...

I took Buckhurst Lane to reach Cadham

Shoreham in Kent is a nice little village