off road, on road, up hills

We had a day off from cycling on Sunday, which was very welcome! Monday is Simon and Beth's day off from the pub and Simon kindly spent an hour of it taking 4 of us plus our mountain bikes to Guildford to find almost the start of the Downs Link. This disused railway track runs from Guildford to Shoreham which is 37miles. We often use the leg of the Link near our homes to walk the dogs, cycle, geocache etc. So I was quite excited to experience a different part of it. The excitement was short lived as the first mile or so was hard going through sand...yes, SAND!  And uphill sand at that! Where did the Sahara come from? Pah! So a bit of getting off and walking ensued. And a bit of musing what we would do if we broke a leg at this late stage from Beth and I. We decided we'd use her holiday insurance and go to Barbados and recover for a month or so. So the prospect of injury didn't seem so bad.
Being on the mountain bike required a whole other set of muscles and generated other sore areas as the morning wore on. But mustn't whinge too much. The weather was lovely and it was a joy to be away from the traffic for once. And very pretty too. There is a train station at Rudgwick which is long since closed but the owners have kept it as it was, complete with flowers on the platform too...really remarkable and showing much dedication on their part.
Had a couple of incidents: one involving Alex falling sideways very elegantly...off road is a whole other balancing game afterall. But we won't mention this in case he gets embarrassed! And then Beth came a cropper with her crossbar when Alex decided to change direction suddenly in front of her without too much warning. See it was all about Alex today! I thought Beth was very contained in the face of pretty unmentionable pain....
Anyway, by the time we got to the Bax Castle pub between Christs Hospital and Southwater we decided enough good time had been had by all. Simon joined us for a leisurely lunch in the garden. Then buoyed up by their baguettes a boy-type challenge was issued by Coach. He (in the tradition of Top Gear) bet Simon he would beat him to Copsale from Southwater - with Simon on road and John off road.  So off they dashed and of course John beat the Galaxy. With those thighs and no traffic lights of course he did! And he was well pleased with himself.
We got back to the White Horse after a pleasant few hours, 24or so miles off-road under our belts and vowing (me anyway) not to go near the mountain bike again for a few years!