That was my 31st FNRttC, over a period of about 13 years but I still feel like a bit of a noob sometimes. Relatively painless exit down through Tooting. Then through Carshalton on roads familiar only from FNRttCs. I'm sometimes out on my bike during the day and get a strange sense of deja vu. I've been here before, but it was somehow different. Cue Twilight Zone music.
Met up with a few familiar faces:
@StuAff @lazybloke @Trickedem and a few other faces that I know just from these rides.
We stopped for a regroup on Markedge Lane where it passes under the M25. I snuck off for a pee at the roadside and fell down a quite deep drainage ditch that my shins tell me had sharp concrete edges. Noob mistake, don't wander off into pitch dark bushes.
Burstow scouts put on the usual array of sandwiches and other vittles and we set off into the cold bang on time at 04:30 and made our way to Shoreham via Turners hill then a series of long descents punctuated by a few short steep ascents as the sun came up over the fields.
I limited my breakfast to a quick coffee before setting off homewards over Devils Dyke. It was a very pleasant but relatively short homeward ride, as sleepiness descended and I got a train home from Hassocks.
"!
