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Oliver Schick
Well, I made it to the windmill, but it was probably one of the toughest rides I've yet done. Pretty much as soon as I hit the bridlepaths South of Redhill, I just encountered mile after mile of slippery mud. As a result I spent a family ridiculous amount of time either walking, or slipping and falling off. By the time I got to the canal at Loxwood,I was completely shattered. However an ice cold pint of shandy got me back on the road again and onto more terrible, overgrown, muddy bridlepaths.
The climb h up onto the Downs was brutal, something like a40 minute uphill walk on soapy wet clay. I stopped for a rest and ate an entire malt loaf in one go before pushing on. From there, the downhill run was glorious, if perilous, with previous little control of the bike's speed or direction. The last trial was an attempt to find and follow Stand Street, an old Roman road, now reduced to faint traces and overgrown footpaths, which I foolishly tried to follow. Eventually after wrestling my bike over yet another bramble clad stile,I have up and got onto the A285 where I could finally open the gas and cruise along at 30+kph for the first time all day.
I finally arrived at the entrance to the mill, only to find yet more stiles and gates and a frankly quite disappointing sunken road, but at the top of the hill the mill was waiting, unfortunately with a small group of tourists having a picnic. I took some photos and left, somewhat deflated and headed back to Chichester, where I found all the shops closed and missed the train to Victoria by a single minute.