Peckham to Beckenham Place Park

Mild weather saw 25 riders set off from Peckham Square with Bruce leading. Jamie, who had planned the ride, acted as one of several marshals who kept the group together plus occasonaly helping at the small number of tricky junctions. Apart from a short stop to reset an errant chain we made steady progress up and over the hill at Nunhead. The Waterkink Way had relatively few of other users so everyone could relax a bit on this mile of well-surfaced traffic free path. Reached Beckenham Place Park in excellent time and made camp at the Homestead. Most chose to take a long coffee break. A small group went for a tour of the nearby bits of he park. We had a look at the Mansion then down to the swimmng lake where there were several people in the water. Then back to the Homestead pushing our bikes through the fomral gardens. Much work has been done on these, in fact 2 poeple were having a break from gardening as we passed. These gardens were derelict up to a few years ago but are now in reasonable order.They should look great in the summer when many of the plants will be in bloom. For the return Jean led as we were using her route through Bellingham to Catford, At Catford returned, using the tunnel next to Halfords, to Ladywell Fields and largely reraced our outward route. This year choose to cross Peckham Rye Park to Peckham Rye West thus avoidng the awkward right merge from Peckham Rye East. Were back 35 min early – unheard of for the Healthy Rides! Very enjoyable ride, good destination with a very efficient cafe in the Homestead and great weather for January.

Thanks to Bruce and Jean for leadng and to Jamie, Jean, Rich, Mike and Gill who all did a bit of marshalling.

Map of route at https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=10qVH5cAC9lJS7-TXBmhXMJhy4FxtvF80&usp=sharing

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