1st August Beginner's ride: 23 miles of knees creaking more than Roger's bike!

Roger's first Saturday ride as leader - Well done!

The “beginners “consisting of Maggie, Anna, Ray and Roger met in the Library car park at Sutton. Roger promised to lead them astray to Hampton Court so they set off for Linear park via Sutton Bus garage, Sutton Green and Stayton Road to cross the A217  at Kimpton and on to Linear Park. The path along the length of the park has been upgraded and the “No cycling” signs replaced by “Shared Path” signage. Gone too are the wonderfully decorative edging bricks on the narrow tight turns, which always threatened to throw any rider that touched them well off balance.

At Trafalgar Road they carried on through the alleyway admiring the fresh graffiti and avoiding the flies and turning left past the Hamptons and on up to the cross roads at Worcester park. The temporary cycle lane under the bridge was greatly appreciated as they made for Berrylands via the cycle lane along Malden Road and the underpass at South Lane.

Navigation through Kingston was as always, a blend of serendipity and de ja vu but eventually they found the bridge and made use of the temporary cycle lane to cross with the minimum of hassle. At the entrance of Bushy Park, they met Colin who was hoping to catch up with another group and who was reveling in the luxury of now having gears on his bike. The café on the far side of the bridge at Hampton Court was open and serving coffee and Cherry pie, so all was right with the world.

 They returned to Kingston via the towpath and always willing to explore even more of the unknown, even managed to avoid following the traffic through the underpass before retracing to route to Worcester Park and back to Sutton via Lower Morden.

Written by Roger Parsley