I led this ride, substituting for Phillippa.

After the previous day saw the heaviest rain I can recall for July, together with ANOTHER tornado hitting Bognor http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-14082158 this outing seemed to get off to a particularly unpropitious start.

This afternoon the rain had gone, and the sun was (mostly) out, but it was a blustery day with winds gusting at up to 33mph. Unsurprisingly it was only myself and Janet who appeared at the start point.

As we had the advantage of a tail wind, we decided nevertheless to go out to Tangmere, so set off round the back of Chichester, to end up at Church Road, crossing the bypass at the lights and taking the old road across the airfield between Tangmere and Oving. This road is rough at the best of times but today was seriously flooded, although a dry route is possible (and clearly well used) via the adjacent field. As we were by-passing the water, a car came along this narrow bumpy lane at some speed, charged through the water which I estimated to be about 10 inches deep, and spun its wheels on the mud before disappearing into the distance, barely dropping in speed. Coming from round a bend, the driver could not possibly have seen us had we been on the road negotiating the flood. A classic example of a drivers utter disregard of anything else that should be in his way. 

On arrival at Tangmere museum (via the Oving cyclepath) we caught the tail end of a reunion lunch gathering by ex members of SOE who had been stationed at Tangmere 1939-45.  Some suited, booted and badged security had been laid on and they eyed us suspiciously as we wheeled our bikes through the gathering. 

On the return route, to avoid the flood we went via Oving and intended to take a route I had not used for years which ran down the boundary of the now closed Littlemead School.  No trace of it whatsoever! The farmer had evidently incorporated it into the field and I have a suspicion it may not have been a public path but for the benefit of the school. Undeterred I recalled another path which went through the school grounds. We found this one which was easy cycling and clearly well used. It went past the derelict school buildings. Janet pointed out the "Private - no right of Way" sign which genuinely I did not see until we passed another one at the other end. However by this time we were out on the Shopwhyke road. A very useful cut through and evidently in regular  use despite being unofficial.

Janet turned for home at Shopwhyke Nurseries, towards Drayton and Bognor, whilst I had business in Chichester so decided to return there via another route I hadn't done for years, up the old Coach Road and a bridleway which parrallels the A27. This turned out to be very unpleasant. Although wide and cycle-able the undergrowth had been cut back along the entire length and the ground was absolutely strewn with Hawthorn and Blackberry thorns. I ended up wheeling the bike cautiously for the best part of a mile and counted myself lucky not to have got a puncture. I pulled 2 thorns from the tyre before getting on the tarmac again.   Fortunately they had not gone in very deep.

The round trip from Chichester amounted to no more than about 10 miles -however I at least doubled that by the time I got home.

Graham

Posted by RideLeader at 22:41 BST

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