Pulborough Bird Sanctuary

Today we decided on a long ride because the weather was nice :)

 We hadn't been on the South Downs yet this year. So at 7.30 am and the temperature a fabulous 20'C already, we headed off over the North Downs via Peaslake to Cranleigh.  Our aim was to reach Amberley in around four hours.

We reached Cranleigh  four minutes quicker than when we came this way three weeks earlier on our way to Southwater - the trails are much less crowded this time day :)

We pushed a bit on the Downs Link and reached Southwater at 40km in 1 hour 53, last time was a long 1.59 hurrah! I filled a bottle here and we pushed on.  

The downs link was remarkably clear of other users so we made good time with Jane on the front :)  We reached the end of the link in 2.44 . This is where it got tougher because now we turn on to the South Downs Way and encounter.........some hills!! 

We'd been pretty much in the shade until now. As we climbed up onto the Downs, the temperature climbed too, reaching 27' C in the most exposed points......lovely :)  We climbed from here over Annington hill, then up again after the level section to Chanctonbury Ring all the time enjoying the lovely heat. Next was the scary loose descent to the even scarier A24! :-o

At the top of the next climb we came across a guy with his bike upside down, emptying the bits of his broken suspension seatpost from the seat tube :) the next section across Kithurst ,Springhead and Rackham hills is great fun all a gently rolling big ring blast on hard narrow chalk paths. It was getting close to four hours so we hammered it across here and skidded down into Amberely at 3h 49m.....hurrah!  We would normally grab teacakes and coffee at the cafe in Amberely, but Jane hadn't stopped complaining about the small size of the teacakes since we were there a month ago. So we pushed on to have tea at Pulborough Brooks (Where I'd had some normal sized tea cakes a few weeks ago when I was out with the A group.)

The teacakes met with Jane's approval, meeting all of the criteria for the perfect teacake. Two weeks ago at Southwater she and Eric had worked out the formula for teacakes. Eric had had a similar teacake trauma some time before.  I don't remember all of the details but it had to be around 8cm wide, not 'capped' (sliced evenly so that the top and bottom are of even diameter), cooked in a toaster to avoid being tainted by smells of other food from the grill.......and so on....etc

After tea was a two hour hard slog into the wind to home. A great mixed six hours on the bike.