I decided to try a different ride today, to Perry Woods, a local nature reserve. There's a ten mile loop to be done around the woods but I know it mainly as the place many of the kids go to practice jumps on their Carreras. It was 15°C but with a chilly, blustery wind. The Stumpy was tempting me but I took the Ridgeback instead: it's been my commuter for the last six weeks or so and it's a real pleasure to ride. Ridgebacks of the mid-nineties don't get much love, perhaps because most were targeted at the lower end of the market; perhaps because, like Dawes, the brand wasn't considered cool, but this 705RS, although it was never going to set the world alight, is a cracking little bike. Quite stiff, responsive, nippy, comfortable.
Anyway, the ride to Perry Woods, took me through the little village of Chartham, the quaintly named but, today, windswept Old Wives Lees, and lastly, due to a wrong turn, Shottenden. Most of the orchards have now been picked but there was some hop picking going on. It's real Garden of England territory.
However, I had to stop several times to study the map and, even then, took a wrong turn. It was all taking longer than I hoped. Nevertheless, I reached one of Perry Woods' car parks and sat down to munch a cookie and figure out where I should be going to follow the 10 mile loop.
I was hoping there would be a friendly sign saying something like, 'Cycle loop this way', along with an arrow to follow, but was there? Hell, no! Instead, there were some stern warning signs saying, in effect, 'Don't ride on anything here that doesn't explicitly say you can ride on it'. Further study of the map revealed that the start of the trail was just continuing down the country lane I'd turned off to stop at the car park. So, I rode along that for a while, noticed no more signs and decided I really couldn't be bothered to do a ten mile loop, stopping every mile or so to study the map even more. Lunch and mowing the lawn started to seem very appealing. I decided to head for home but via a slightly different route, taking in the village of Chilham.
The centre of Chilham is a market square with pubs, a tea room, a church, and Chilham Castle at one end. It's picturesque but the market square is used as a car park and black Range Rovers kind of detract from the medieval vibe. Some wooden dudes in Chilham village centre—not too cheerful-looking. Perhaps it's the Range Rovers . . .
Chilham Castle—usually, I see this in the distance, from Catha's Seat, on my way to Wye, on the other side of the valley.
Leaving the Perry Woods loop was the right call for today. Lunch was good.
