Grafty Green Lunch (without Roy Watson)
Posted on Wednesday 3 October 2007 by Ken Peters
In Kent With Roy Watson was what had been planned and he did manage to make lunch, but…..
Many of you know that Roy was unable to lead his ride so it fell to me as I was planning to do the ride anyway. Before starting there are plenty of thanks to be made to other people without whom the ride would not have gone ahead. The principal characters, Roy apart, were David Kurtz and Richard Philpott who worked out what the route was as David had ridden the route the previous time and managed to get a Google Maps plot so I had some idea of where the ride was scheduled to go.
Eventually ten riders assembled at Staplehurst, all bar one were well known to me from previous rides so it was a case of saying hello to familiar faces who I had not been on the road with for some time rather than having to introduce myself to new people. The only new face to me was Nick Davies who adds another number to the plethora of Nicks who ride with us
On the road we were immediately in quiet lanes after leaving the station but we had not gone too far before I managed to be the sole casualty of the day after falling when tangling handlebars with Des Forde. That prompted a five or ten minute halt while I attended to bruised ego and some minor problems with the front brakes.
More quiet lanes ensued as we rode towards the only real hill on the ride, as we headed northwards to flirt with the North Downs, at Chart Hill just before we got to Sutton Valence. I almost forgot to mention that I had recruited David Kurtz to lead as he had the route on his GPS enabling him to guide us so those who think that these techno gizmos have no use should think again. The beneficial effect was that I was able to move much more freely among the remaining riders to chat and renew old acquaintances although I had not intended to get quite so close to Des.
Our roadside stop meant that we reached the lunch stop at Grafty Green, The Who’d A thought It, at about 12:20 having covered about half of the route. We were greeted by Anne and Roy who had ridden the short distance from their home to the lunch venue. Lunch was excellent and was pretty unhurried as we were making good time. I have to say that after the first 5 kilometres the roads we were riding on became more and more familiar and the directions which Roy had provided me with allowed me to take the lead for some of the ride.
After lunch we headed south and then west in pretty flatand picturesque Wealden lanes. We were treated to the sight of lots of parachutists and light aircraft, as we approaced Headcorn airfield, which made a pretty spectacular sight. After that it was on to tea at Iden Croft Herbs before a short sprint to Staplehurst station to get the 16:33 back home. We were alos treated to another sighting of the indisposed leader at Frittenden , as he and Anne were on their way to pick up Bradly who was playing football and so was unable to join the ride.
A good day was had by all and special thanks are due to David Kurtz and his GPS for keeping us on the right road which meant I had very little actual ride leading to do. By the way we did manage the fine distance of 61Km, which may have been a little short of the actual distance ridden as I think I reset the computer while fiddling with brakes after falling.
Riders:
Angela Byrne, Sue Dorey, Simon Binning, Nick Davies, Des Forde, David Kurtz, John Silvertown, David Vines and Michael Belcher.