Our regular Sunday riders were not out on Sunday; Luke catching up on sleep and additional housework duties, Dave dreaming of being on his bike and Jake collecting another trophy to add to her marvellous collection. So I texted Nick at 0900 to find out if he was up for a ride and despite not receiving a reply I ventured out in the arctic conditions. After a few minutes on the bike, my eyes watering, nose running, ears...my ears...where were my ears?...numbed! I started to quietly hope that Nick couldn't make it and I would be able to do a short ride back to my cozy home. My hopes were dashed when I arrived at Horton and met up with Nick. We did a quick roll call and decided to head east and ventured into new territory for a Sunday morning.
Our route took us to Ewell past Luke's house (to tempt him or to catch a glimpse of him in his maid's outfit?), and then we headed through Nonsuch Park, Cheam, Sutton, Royal Marsden, past the prison, Woodmansterne, Chipstead and its valley before turning left to climb the heights of Chipstead and down past Fanny's farm. It was too early for a stop so we continued on to Merstham, the edge of Redhill airfield, Outwood, Smallfield before heading west via Crawley and Ifield with the plan of raiding the Addiscombe club cafe at the pine shop in Charlwood.
A mile before Charlwood as we approached a motorcycle shop (Adrenaline motorcycles) we spotted a large sign to a bus cafe. Thinking that this would be quieter than the pine shop we turned in to find that it wasn't what we had in mind. There in front of us was an old coach converted into a cafe! We caught the coach and were soon very comfortable sitting in comfy chairs in the warm coach. The menu was very much geared to motorcyclists rather than cyclists but I did try to encourage Nick to go for the Bikers Belly Buster Breakfast which comprised 3 eggs, 4 sausages, 4 bacon rashers, black pudding, mushrooms, tomatoes....and so it went on. Unusually Nick wasn't up for the challenge so we settled on some sandwiches and mugs of tea and hot chocolate and joined in the banter with the cook and the owner of the shop who also owns the coach and a few dozen motorcycles from the 70's and 80's. The location of the coach is within a few hundred yards of the end of the Gatwick runway, so we could enjoy a bit of plane spotting as the planes came into land flying just a few hundred feet above us. Having regained feeling in our toes we continued home via Leigh, Betchworth and up Pebble Hill. I completed 52 miles and Nick must have cleared 60 miles by the time he got home to Worcester Park.
Note that the cafe opened in December, is only open Saturdays and Sundays until later in the year....and there is probably enough seating at tables for 12 people.
Here is a link to more photos:
Sounds like a great ride and tea stop, suggest we do it again some time. Don't know why we could not have combined this with a ride part way to the VTTA lunch as I had suggested on the Rorum 2 or 3 weeks ago. Jake rode out via Pebble Hill and I took the route via Reigate and Horley down Lonesome Lane and then onto Copthorne. WE were both quite close to your Coach stop. Never mind next year maybe!
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