Sunday 3rd June. I-Spy Ride

Today was the second DA Event of the year, the I-Spy Ride organised by Horsham Crawley Group. Our Rides List provided for us to meet at Wiggonholt for the start of the event from 10.00. However after request I contacted regular riders and suggested an 8.15 start at Walberton Pond to Ride to Wiggonholt for 9.30 and an early coffee stop. That brought out a good turnout with Sam, Russell, Bob and Mike meeting me at Walberton and Harvey meeting us at Wiggonholt. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with temperatures up to 25C inland.

We headed out on the usual route taking the hilly lanes via Madehurst. Then it was a fast descent down Houghton Hill looking over the Arun Valley. Just after Amberley Sam spotted an artistic convergence of polluted jet contrails.

Then it was on via Rackham and the Gates to Parham and along a tree lined lane.

We arrived at Wiggonholt at dead on 9.30 to join Horsham Crawley members already there and we were soon joined by Arun Adur members. Pete Eyre was the organiser and handed out the route/clue sheets. . Totals were 9 from Horsham Crawley, 6 from Bognor Chichester and 3 from Arun Adur. Horsham Crawley formed 3 groups to go round the route while Bognor Chichester and Arun Adur formed a group each.

After a short stretch of main road we headed off on lanes towards Nutbourne and then Stream Lane and on to West Chiltington. After a loop through the village one of the clues was which number was missing. The clue included a picture of a Fire Hydrant marker with the bottom number missing so the answer was 6. This was the sort of question but not always as easy to find and even then there was some discussion as there was another Hydrant on the other side of the road but it didn’t fit the picture background.

I took the opportunity to get a group picture, not a lot of traffic around.

Then it was on north and east passing Shripney and on via Dial Post. Then the route took us on a quiet lane coming out near Ashurst to pick up the Downs Link cyclepath near Stans Bike Shack. A fair length of rough track along the old railway path followed until we were approaching the South Downs near Steyning.

More lanes took us to The Star in Steyning for lunch where we met up with the other groups, handed in the morning answers and received the afternoon’s clue sheet and route.

We headed out by road back towards Ashurst but turned off on Spitathandle Lane towards Wiston. One of the clues was “Which Monarch do you pass” The answer being Queen Victoria shown on this no longer operational drinking fountain.

Then it was on to Ashington where Arun Adur caught up with us and we combined on the lane up to Warminghurst Church or strictly to get the clue answer correct as we did The Church of The Holy Sepulchre Warminghurst.

Then it was back via West Chiltington to the finish at Wiggonholt getting there with 15 minutes to spare before the Cafe closed at 4.30. In the end we came equal third out of 5 so not quite last. Jacqui and Gordon of Horsham Crawly came first.

For the return we took a little longer for less traffic via the track from Houghton to Burpham and Arundel and Yapton. For me it was a beautiful ride home along the seafront with the sea calm as a millpond.

The I-Spy route was about 37 miles. With the addition of riding from home to Wiggonholt and back my mileage for the day was 83 with 3558 feet of climb. See the image below for the route.

I have been quite busy with the Camera the last few days. On Friday I went to the Biannual Chichester Cathedral Festival of flowers with 50,000 blooms filling every corner.