Frozen Eels & Buried Treasure

My trusty cloud doesn't stray too far.


I can't believe that I went out this morning without actually finding myself in the bog for a dump! I always manage to squeeze one out before I leave the flat! Not today though. I will not say anymore about poo or having a poo or what I did to help matters regarding my disappearing poo act! Although I will say one more thing..........I did come back home feeling at least 2lbs lighter....ahem!............Oh, I do apologize.......you didn't need that much info did you;)

Our drive to The Surrey Hills, Peaslake, Surrey was pretty slow going; Mainly because of a very slow moving vehicle in the middle of the road. I felt just a little bit guilty when we eventually passed it and saw it was a disabled man driving an electric wheelchair and he was using his mouth to steer! He had a large flag extending out from the back of it right up into the air. And a back-up vehicle in the form of a van driving just yards behind him no doubt full of spare batteries. Then we found ourselves behind a giant orange tractor bouncing away on his big fat knobbly tyres. But the sun was out and the rest of the traffic was fine and besides, we were more looking forward to getting up in them Surrey Hills too much to be annoyed about traffic.
We (Lee & I) arrived in Peaslake around 12:15 and drove by the little triangle that is Peaslake Village........don't blink or you will miss it (or crash into the only shop there;)....Here also were sat several fellow mountain bikers drinking tea & coffee from the shop and checking out our bikes that were clamped to the roof of my car.....past the hotel, pub & church and then into the very bumpy and mucky car park at the bottom & precisely inbetween Pitch & Holmbury Hills.
What happened in the 10 minutes between us getting out of the car and then cycling off to the top of Holmbury Hill are best left un-posted! believe me, they are!

It was cold to start off with........very cold! And the sky was mostly free of clouds....almost clear in fact. The long slog up to the start of Barry Knows Best soon warmed us up. I had to stop a while so a fellow mountain biker who was just in front of us could blast his snot out each of his nostrils & disappear just ever so slightly away from my invaluable lungs! Disgusting!
So, all nicely warmed up and in serious danger of our balls over heating.....we pass by BKB (we will come back this way in a while) and make our way through the trees, over the roots, white shafts of light coming in low from the sun, around (mostly) the black muddy puddles, a little puppy dog that escaped from his owners and decided to follow lee & I until we actually had to stop so the owners could catch up with their precious pup! 10 minutes later we arrived safely at the top of Holmbury Hill (dog free......for the time being) and took a photo, had a bit of a drink, admired the fantastic view, started to get icybles (it goes from one extreme to the next in this weather......our poor nads!) and cycled back to BKB via the stinky, wet, muddy pits that are the The Yoghurt Pots (never again in winter!)......oh yes, that puppy that we kind of led astray? It caught us up at the top when we had our drinks and as we left it ran after us again prompting us to stop and the owner to run after him. There must be something about us that the pup really Loved:) I caught him by his collar and felt his warm soft fur:) We bode our farewells again and went to our favourite downhill section (Barry Knows Best). That track is great! It should be longer though. We stopped halfway down to take a few pics of each other jumping. The photo below is me doing exactly what I shouldn't be doing considering I have haemophilia! You just gotta though haven't ya;)

Me doing nutty's down Barry Knows Best!

Lee had his turn and just look at the shadow he & his bike cast on the ground. I wanted a shadow of my wheel in my photo! Bastard! Ah....but just look how high my wheel is off the ground compared to Lee's! I am much higher and I was going faster! Feel free to comment Lee if you think you were going faster;) His photo that I took with the really cool shadow of the wheel is below.

Lee trying his best to copy the egg-spurt!

We Love bombing it down there. Actually we Love bombing it everywhere, but downhills like that are the best because you don't need to pedal. Lee does more jumps than I do. That is probably because I ain't as stoopid as he is. But I did nearly fall off twice today, so who is the silly one now eh! Those bloody roots! One of these days I'm gonna fall off that darn bike and kill myself! Oh well. at least I will be having fun;)
We arrived at the bottom with big smiles (as usual) all over our faces and said to each other how F*****g cool was that? (as usual) & how we wish it was twice as long (as usual). And off we went past the Peaslake "Tractor Pulling" teams headquarters and swung by the little village triangle and shop once again and we were only half way through our ride! I popped into the shop as Lee checked out all the other mountain bikes. I wanted to see what kind of post cards they had. Really boring ones that weren't even photos! Paintings of Leith Hill tower and Peaslake 100 years ago! And a photo of beachy Head light house by the cliffs on the South coast..........I mean that is nowhere near Peaslake!
So for the next hour and a half we headed off up into Pitch Hill by the church.....through literally thousands of trees and over those; Ever ready to pull you off your bike.........."The Antient Half Submerged Frozen in Time Solidified Eels!". Twice I nearly came off during todays ride and twice I was just like a stuntman in a movie;) Lee & I want to get a helmet camera.......That will be fun:).
Up to the top of Pitch, had some lunch and more chocolate....MMmmmmm! Took a photo (see photo at the very top of the post....the bench one & check out the cloud seemingly attracted to me)), admired the wonderful view, listened to the little dicky birds tweeting & weaving in and out of the bushes looking for flies maybe? Such a beautiful sound! It reminded me of the sound the birds make in spring time. Oh, and a hot air ballon about 30 miles away towards The devils Punchbowl, Hindhead. Several tiny airplanes drawing little white lines on their light blue black board as they head towards Gatwick. Lee had frozen fingers, so off we "Bombed" it down to the bottom of the otherside of Pitch Hill by the windmill and found some short but very steep drop-ins that we had discovered a few weeks back in the blackness of night. We had a look at them in the safety of daylight and cycled down them twice each:) One time I nearly hit a tree head-on at the bottom! Very exciting!
Then..........are you still with me;)...........back up to the top and down to the car park via our regular single tracks with their twists and turns, roots and tiny berms, oncoming mountain bikers, fast downhills and a steep & very rooty (did I say I nearly fell off earlier?) section that eventually led right out into the car park. A flick of the stopwatch, a chunk of cinnamon milk choclate each, an hours drive and we were home. Dropped Lee of in Strawberry Hill and then promptly dropped myself into the bath back at my flat:)

I don't know what tired me out more..........the bike ride or writing this post;)


Jason





(C) JPT 2006