60 mile Guildford cycle circuit

Today, I did another training run in excellent weather, this time a 60 mile circuit to the South, map here . Setting off around 9am, I headed out of town on the NCN22 over the Mount, taking the track along the 'summit ridge'. This was the only part of my route off-tarmac, since I wanted to keep up the pace. I headed through Elstead and Thursley and up Punchbowl Lane, which follows the route of the old A3 closed following the completion of the Hindhead tunnel. This becomes the tarmacced track around the rim of the Devil's Punchbowl. There were excellent views now that the NT has cleared the trees that throttled the place. I stopped for a snack at the cafe (somewhat slow service).

The next leg of the route was across country from Shottermill skirting the slopes of Blackdown to Lurgashall, with its picture post card manicured, vivid green, cricket pitch, surrounded by olde worlde cottages and an excellent pub, the Noah's Ark, at which I stopped to slake my thirst; and on via open lanes through Northchapel to Kirdford and then Wisborough Green. From here the enjoyment faded a bit, as I encountered more traffic. This was expected on an unavoidable stretch of the A272 to Billingshurst, but even the back lanes to Ewhurst were quite busy. Maybe it was school run time. After a final steep pull (or walk) up the Pitch Hill road, I was grateful for the assistance of gravity to reach Shere around 5pm. Here my GPS told me I had done 60 miles, so I summoned up a lift back home. But I have marked on the map an option to complete the full circuit back to central Guildford via Staple Lane.