Saturday, Sun, and Sea Fish!

Hello blog lovers.

After an early morning mist, the sun burnt  through and gave us a lovely morning.  "Lets do some miles today" says the Old Boy, "with a nice stop for lunch, maybe a bit of seared tuna"

Well there is only one place, so far, that does a lovely bit of seared tuna and that is Eynsford.  Last time I was there having seared tuna was when I was with Nagging Sister and the Old Boy, and that time we took the train to Sevenoaks and rode to Eynsford to get home!

This time there was no train tickets, there was no bike rack, it was just me, the Old Boy and the roads! I wasn't sure of the route and which way he was going to be taking us.  But it started off with the A21! Not only that but it took in Cudham North Lane! I was not expecting that so early in the morning. But I did think about the lovely place where we will have our lunch. But until then, it is a hard, long slog!

We set off, me with my non breathable, wet coat, just in case, and the OB with his 12 quid Karimor rain jacket! Just as the ride before I had to remove my jacket as we took on Cudham North Lane! It's like a bloomin sauna! Is there anything out there on the market, which is perfect for wet weather, and is breathable, and is a windproof jacket. more or less exactly what was said on the labels! But that's beside the way, one mistake is allowed, surely! This time though, we didn't turn left to go to Halstead, or turn right to go to Biggin hill. We carried on straight up the road. Then a lovely down hill section.

Now on this road, this Cudham North Lane, there were many cyclists, but it appeared that so far, there were only two complete nutters going up it. All very friendly people, flying past us, going down hill. But now, as we are riding the rest of the road, it changes its name to Cudham South Lane! We are riding down hill. All those cyclists have already 'done their hill' and they were having the pleasure of cruising down the other side!

Along here I took a stop! Thats right, I took a stop to just take a look at the view! It looked just so lovely. I just had to photograph it, so here are some shots, of course I am in the pictures, just to add prospective.

After here it was heading down towards Brasted, with the promise of a cup of tea! It was still quite a ride to get there! With a few hilly 'lumps' just to let me know that we don't live on a boring flat Island! The tea, which actually turned out to be a latte with a delish chocolate cookie was a very welcome refreshment. But the place we had our coffee was obviously a place where cyclists hand out after riding up and down the hills around here. A lovely cafe, called Ninetysix degrees!

We left there about 11:30 I am sure the Old Boy said we would be in .Eynsford for about 12:00, but I must have missed heard him.  As you will see from the geeky stats, its a bloomin long, long road just to get to Seal, and then we still had a few more miles to go after that! And Its all hilly! Do I not love hills! The OB did say that he had cut out one particular nasty bit of hill, apparently I always moan about it!  I was looking forward to my lunch!

I was just happy and relieved to see the signs for Eynsford! I knew then that I could relax a bit, take the weight of my posterior! Rest these old knees! Plus get sub delicious food inside me with a lovely pint of lager!

And it was delicious too, here take a look

A very healthy meal, and yes, there are some chips on there, well, we do need our carbs! 

We decided to take a look around, have a look in the river at the fish. I have these polarised sunglasses and I could see directly through the water at the fish, the Old Boy had on ordinary sun glasses. He asked to borrow mine so that he could look into the river at the fish.  As we swapped sunglasses I dropped his! Straight into the river!  He did managed to fish them out again though!

We also took a look around at Eynsford Castle.  I didn't even know there was a castle here until last year. But today we thought we would take a look around here. Here are some pictures.

And now for the journey home!  Nagging Sister had noticed my 'check in' on facebook, and she was quite disappointed in not being here with us. The OB told us that our trip today would finish at Hayes, so that is where we arranged to meet Nagging sister.  We still had a nasty little hill to do, Foo King Hill as Nagging Sister affectionately calls it.

I struggled up here, and I was pleased that I didn't have a huge lunch inside of me, because going up here then I believe my lunch would have ended up on the road as well!

We finally reached the end, and we had choices to make, left or right. I chose left.  I was thinking that maybe there were fewer hills this way to get to Hayes! Going right meant going up to Chislehurst, and then Summer Hill!  What I didn't bank on was Shire Lane!

This hill almost had me. This hill almost made me get off my bike and walk.  The OB was behind me, encouraging me, nagging me, trying to get me to push harder up the hill. I was hating this hill. But I was determined not to get off my bike! I am not walking up hills, not today. The tears were brimming at my eyes, I was puffing and yelling and cursing the hill.  I finally got to the top, turned right and took a short breather.

As I looked back at the road we just came up and silently said to myself  "You done it Old Girl, you done it!"

There was just one more hill to negotiate, the one just before the left hand turn towards Keston, and Hayes! 

We made it to the George, just as Nagging Sister, her daughter and a daughters friend arrived as well!  Another great piece of timing from us all, and a well deserved pint to end our day.

Geeky stats.