The Conquering of Satan

With my cricket match having been cancelled and the rain clouds still lingering menacingly over the satanic North Downs, I pedalled off with the objective of reaching Sutton Valence castle which is perched on the hillside overlooking the Weald of Kent.

The castle is only seven miles away but I stretched it out to 20 miles just so I could take in my favourite hill climb. With drizzle in the afternoon air and the clouds darkening I headed straight for the Downs. For the first time, I completed the ascent with out stopping for my usual breather about 300 yards from the top. I wasn't even in my granny gear as I reached the summit. I was not aware of having taken any performance enhancing substances beforehand but whatever I may have had, did the trick. Satan had been conquered and now I just need to keep doing this to prove it wasn't a fluke.

Three miles after having reached the top, I headed back down. Through the villages of Hollingbourne (quite nice) and Harrietsham (a little less nice) and over the A20 (our route to the coast), the M20 (hopefully not our route!) and the channel rail link (our route home). All of these lay within about 100 metres of each other.

At this point there had not been anything worth taking a photo of so I took one of the M20 looking east just for something to post on the blog!

No sooner had I done this then I came across two beautiful oast houses, real symbols of Kent.

A few miles further on I passed this beautiful orchard perched on the hill near Sutton Valence. I assume this is apple blossom but for all I know they could have been spaghetti trees!

All that remins of the medieval castle in Sutton Valence is the ruined keep. Common sense told me that they build castles on the top of hills so why on earth did they build this one half way down the hill? This was a nasty surprise having just freshly conquered the satanic North Downs and riden 20 miles in total. Nonetheless, this was my objective and so I stuck my nose over the brow of the hill (about 400 ft high but steep) and headed down until I bumped into the castle. A quick sip of water and a photograph and I headed back up.

Back up past the aptly named Ridge golf course and East Sutton Park prison (the one that held the murderer Jane Andrews until she absconded late last year) and home via Leeds Castle.

Sutton Valence (the school, not the prison!) was where my dad was schooled and I did wonder whether the he may have frequented any of the pubs in the attractive centre of the village in his time!

The total trip was 27 miles (or 26.99 to be precise) at a shade over 11 mph. I am not going to be in the leading pack but was pleased to maintain this average speed over relatively mountainous (I mean "hilly") ground.