North Downs adventure

As part of my training for the Dunwich Dynamo I've been doing some longer rides in the hills around London.  This weekend I decided to ride south from Orpington and loop around over the North Downs.

The North Downs are a series of hills which span east to west just south of London.  The hills aren't too bad however they tend to be steep but short.  Climbs of 10% gradient or more aren't uncommon on some of the laneways around the area.

Plenty of the laneways were super quiet with no cars, however many of them were very narrow, steep and wet which made for interesting descents to say the least, I gave my discs a good working.

Mix this up with some open roads, beautiful back lanes in the sunset...

As well as some Oast houses which are a vernacular building common in Kent.  Traditionally they were used for drying hops in the production of beer, many of them like the ones in the pictures above have been converted into houses.

Crossing under the M25 ring road around London, and I'm nearly home...

At the top of the north downs I can see the skyline of London in the distance, you can just see the Shard, the Gherkin and Heron tower.

A ride through some the fields and I got back to Orpington.  Next week stay tuned for the actual Dunwich Dynamo ride.