Saturday dawned fair and bright, and with that came a large group of cyclists: Field Marshall Hughes, Captain Fergar, Alan, Eleanor, Gareth, Helmut, Ian, Jane, Katie, Martin, Miranda, Philip, Suleiman.
Pluckley, as we all surely know is Britain’s most haunted village so it seemed like a good opportunity to imbibe the spirits at the start of the ride, and thus to imbibe them again at the end in the Black Horse pub.
After some fettling and waiting for Martin to pick up his Lucozade we were off into the Kent countryside, and we soon came across my favourite village in Kent: Smarden. With 30ish miles til the lunch stop we put in a reasonable pace and were soon zooming through Sissinghurst, dodging completely Biddenden (sigh) and Benenden. There were some nice hills to climb, and apart from one rather scruffy downhill the roads were very clear.
After Rolvenden, the land started to flatten out and stomachs were starting to grumble. It was with relief that we hit the Isle of Oxney and thence the Ferry Inn just before 1p.m. Our charming lunch stop offered a great variety of food: the beef and ale pie seemed a popular choice and Andrew’s Cheese lovers for 2 meal looked magnificent.
After saying goodbye to Gareth at Appeldore we set off. Just before Warehorne we spotted the royal military canal (which brought back fond memories of the Dymchurch and Dungeness ride) and then we began pootling through a series of rather attractive woods that took us through to Shadoxhurst and Sustrans route 18. After creeping east of Bethersden we went past the Screaming Forest and back into Pluckley Station where we said goodbye to Jane and Ian (who were cycling back to Orpington, lunatics)and most of us set off for the rather hefty climb to Pluckley proper, where we went into the appropriately decorated Halloween kitsch of the Black Horse Pub.
All in all a fantastic day out: Many thanks to our dear leader Trevor Hughes for a beautiful ride and to Lord Fergar for keeping me company at the back!
Katie Collis