5/6 Club Ride- Wet Wittersham

Standing in for JV and Nick to lead the club ride,I had been warned  to expect very few riders due to people being on holiday, the off roaders training for the SDW randonee and some riders doing the Dunwhich Dynamo. With heavy rain forecast all morning and early afternoon I half expected to arrive and do a ride on my own so was pleased to have both Malc C and Marcus for company

Only Malc was equipped with a proper waterproof with which to fend off the rain. Marcus had an emergency transparent windcheater and I had had to borrow my son's windcheater in mock camouflage colours. The rain was already penetrating through to our jerseys and it felt colder  than the 20C air temperature would have led us to expect.

As we dropped down to Ore it was a relief to generate some body heat up the Rye road, only to cool down again as we gingerly descended Pett road and the super steep Chick hill.

We now had many miles of flat riding all the way to Appledore , the heat from our working muscles was just enough to compensate for the evaporative heat loss from our wet jerseys.

Even a short comfort break at Appledore was enough for the chill to set in and we would not stop again until the end.

The rain was coming down in spades as we followed the lumpy countryside towards Wittersham.

As usual I was following both my trusty old 205 Garmin as well as the more modern (but less reliable garmin touring). Unfortunately my old Garmin has a hole in the side where one of the buttons used to be. With the constant road spray some water must have made ingress to the sensitive electronics inside as the screen began flickering before turning a bright shade of blue (which should have been impossible for a black and white screen!) before going dead altogether. Oh dear that's the end of that  although I will put it somewhere warm at home just in case the poor old thing can come back to life?

We eventually came out on a more substantial road that both myself and Marcus thought was the long drag up to broad oak, but our minds were playing tricks with us, as a passing road sign revealed us to be heading towards Sedlescombe. That would mean we would have to do the steep climbs past the Pestalozzi.

By his own admission Malc suffers disproportionately on steep climbs and sure enough did get significantly

No Problems For Malc On His First Stonestile!

dropped by myself and Marcus as we neared Broad Oak . An evil plan hatched in my mind, rather than stick to the planned route we would lead Malc up Stonetsile for the first time and really make him suffer, lol. Much to my surprise Malc was only a little way behind me so my darstadley  plan was foiled and Malc fully desrved the traditional first ascent photo.