I'm very lucky to have a bunch of riding right out of the door - not bad for southern England. It's not very technical but a pleasant set of bridleways, wooded tracks with public access and official BOATs (byways open to all traffic) with lots of steep ups and downs interlinkable with a very minimal amount of country lane. It makes for a good variety of lung openers when there is not the time to search further afield.
This morning on a 2hr loop I got back to the next village north of mine on the way back home and my heart sank. Parked in the village were about 25 very muddy 4x4s that according to the stickers all over them were from some London based off road club clearly down for the weekend on a club rally. From that point back to my home is 4 miles of BOAT. Strangely this boat is the most tricky part of the whole ride with a couple of spots I am yet to clean without dabbing. It's now fooked - it looks like the **** Somme! What was a rooty dust bowl only a few weeks back is now unrecognisable and quite impassable with massive trenches. The really tricky section on a severe gradient with substantial chalk drops and pits now stinks of diesel - one of them must have slipped on the chalk and ruptured their tank or a fuel line on the rocks (got to say I was quietly impressed they attempted it- it must be massively tricky to drive).
Upshot - I think that'll be it for that route until the spring now. I know they were perfectly legally entitled to be there, share and share alike and all that; but why not come here when it was nice and dry for weeks on end and not wait until after 2 weeks of rain to fook it right up for the rest of us.
