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@pastry_bot
Just got back from a long weekend visiting my parents for my mother's birthday.
I wasn't counting on good weather but it held out most of the time. Had a sun-drenched early evening 50 mile spin on Friday, and once I was out of the London surrounds it was pretty deserted out in the lanes, and it was capped by a great descent out of Mayfield where I can see the ridge where my parent's village is. It's not like I don't know that road, but I only realised that it's that long steady descent which always feels like a welcome home, and I was singing and whistling to myself like a goon.
The next morning I went for a ride I'd planned some time ago out to Birling Gap. After literally crunching (I seem to have developed a water-related pedal/cleat interface problem after the EE - "How interesting!" you say...) my way up a 'new' and rather beastly climb I bumbled around a bit of a tricky route through the East Sussex lanes to Wilmington, where I got a good eyeful of the Long Man, which was a pleasant surprise, before a short and sharp and rather exhilarating descent. Then there's another horse carved into the hillside around the corner. The tourists were lapping it up (walker everywhere), and I'd be lying if I said they didn't improve my mood. After climbing up Exceat I was beasted by the wind over Birling Gap. It's a steady climb over open coastal plains, and I was embarrasingly slow. I did take some good pictures though. Blitzed around Eastbourne and up through the flats and back into the hills and then home. It was awesome, and I saw so much different terrain in just 60 miles. Like being on safari. Eastbourne wildlife however...
Fuelled by a pub lunch (and a pint of Harveys, natch...) I rolled back to London in the late afternoon sunshine. I retraced part of a route I'd done before in the other direction, along a lane near Tunbridge Wells which looks almost untouched by traffic: the bushes encroach on the narrow road, grass and moss covers the centre. Twigs, mulch and other debris cling to the slimy surface under the boughs of low hanging trees. It was wet, even after a long hot day. Up and down it goes, over numerous ridges and furrows. I didn't really know where I was. It's pretty fucking rural, to be honest. As I descended another ridge, a green woodpecker broke from the hedgerow not 5 meters in front of me, it's lime green arse bobbing behind it's wings. It shrieked loudly. Our paths coincided, briefly. I think it was the highlight of my weekend.
Anyway. East Sussex is amazing. Between Tunbridge Wells and the coast: that's the bit you want. Judging from strava, those lanes are underused territory.
I should add I did it all with the aid of gears. Sorry. Sort of.