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Beautiful day with blue skies to spare, no
wind and no rain; just the right type of day to air the supercharger and pay our third visit to the
Bull Inn, a country pub situated on Chelsham Common, surrounded by acres of
land and spectacular views. Being such a nice day, and knowing the route
from previous visits, I decided, once I got to the Anne Summers roundabout,
that I would go off-piste into the hills of the North Downs. How hard can
it be to do 3.9 miles, even if it all does go wrong? Well, apparently
it can be mind-numbingly long, frustratingly boring and highly most dangerous!
I remember when looking earlier on the map that you go straight for a bit
and the turn left. The misjudgment was in the interpretation of a 'a bit'.
My bit was a bit too long, which took me up into mountains along the less
than-one-car-with-lanes with blind corners and knowledgeable local traffic coming
in the opposite direction at some rate, with sheer drops into cavernous
valleys miles below. I had no ideas there were Andees passes in Surrey. Not a problem,
just how difficult can 3 miles be. Stick with it. Some 10 minutes later
saved by a dead-end in somebody's farmyard. At which point, with two
satnavs, I thought I was safe. The car one decided the Andees were
impenetrable to radio signals, and 'Waze' on the Iphone told me not worry
as I was only 2.2 miles away, about 9 minutes. At least I was in the right
ballpark area.
So I ask the nice lady in Waze to take me to Chelsham 2.2 miles away. She
started merrily chirping to herself about lefts and rights and very soon
the 9 minutes had long elapsed and I was in new undiscovered territory which
did not in any way resemble Chelham. Lady was undeterred, chatting away, and me
progressively more worried, until I arrived some 15 minutes later, and definitively
having passed the same common at least once, .. at the Anne
Summers Roundabout, where my adventure had started. At this point I stuck
with the lady and did reach the Bull some 45 minutes later than
anticipated - But I had crossed the infamous Andees passes of Surrey!!
The Bull Inn at Chelsham is disguised in
a dead-end slip road on Chelsham Common surrounded by acres of fields and
woodlands, and in spectacular views. The pub is on common itself and they
have the right to use the common, as we did three years ago, - but not if
you need tractors to pull you out. Last few weeks made the common most
soggy so it was a squeeze to get our cars as well as the general public
into the pub's relatively small car-park. In view of such lovely weather,
it was surprising that only 14 of our proper cars made it. All considered,
lovely lunchtime spent with friends. Cruise control failed on the way
back!
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