Eight of us met at Chichester Cross - Edwin, Chris, Avryll, Harvie, Alan, Liz, Phil and Mary. The sky was clear, the sun shone, but a strong northerly wind hampered progress in that direction. A new GPS unit was mounted on Mary's handlebars to direct us to Chalton - a first for the club? After promising not to cycle over cliffs or across ploughed fields, we set off.

GPS immediatey directed us back to Chichester Cross. He had cleverly spotted that this was also the end point and devised a (very) short cut! We headed down west street with Mary frantically pushing buttons and toggle switches to get him to behave. The route out took us through Funtington and across into the Compton valley and a gradual climb to the shop at Compton. GPS was at this point displaying coffee stop, but unfortunately the coffee machine was broken so cold drinks were the order of the day.

A little north of Compton we turned west and crossed into the next valley and eventually crossed the railway and climbed the very steep hill up to Chalton. Alan and Liz had taken an alternative route through Finchdean and met us at the pub reporting a sighting of the rare John Maxim en route. The pub was fairly full, but the outside temperature was pleasant and we sat in the garden admiring the splendid view across the Downs.

Heading south again, GPS sensed we were finally heading in the right direction (or was it Mary threatening to chuck him over the hedge) and dutifully bleeped the correct turns until we arrived at our tea stop at Stanstead House. Another pleasant interlude in the sun and then back down the road to Woodmancote and on to Chichester.

Posted by RideLeader at 17:35 BST

Updated: Sunday, 1 April 2007 22:45 BST

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