NCR21

A cycle ride from the Cutty Sark down National Cycle Route 21 to Crawley. I took the bike by train to London Bridge and cycled the four miles from the recently rebuilt London Bridge station to the Cutty Sark where NCR 21 starts.

The Cutty Sark was a tea clipper built on the Clyde in Scotland in 1869 and was the fastest tea clipper ever built. She only carried tea for a few years before the opening of the Suez Canal in the same year shortening the route and steam ship technology improved and made sailing ships redundant. She carried wool from Australia to UK and was the fastest wool ship for ten years. She became a training ship but outlived that role and she was transferred to permanent dry dock here in Greenwich in 1954.

A detail of her masts and string of flags.

 The full view of the ship.

 A detail of her name on the aft of the ship.

 Looking up River Thames is Europe's tallest building, seen in the distance, The Shard.

 And after the Cutty Sark it was a quiet ride along minor roads, cycle tracks, through parks and along river banks as the well marked cycle route weaves its way through the London suburbs.

 The lunch stop was at The White Bear in Fickleshole just seven miles from central Croydon, a charming pub known for its real ales and excellent food set in country surroundings. It is not far from Biggin Hill airport and plane spotters can watch planes fly over head whilst sitting in the garden.

 Then it was a leg aching lung bursting climb up and over the North Downs and despite having a low geared mountain bike, I have to admit to getting off and pushing the bike up the steepest section. But the view from the top is stunning with Redhill off to the right, Gatwick Airport in the centre and Pease Pottage on the ridge on the horizon.

 And some industrial blight on the otherwise pleasant countryside in the Weald just below the North Downs, a sand conveyor belt linking the quarry and the processing plant next to the railway.

 And view from the top of the conveyor as it leaves the quarry.

And then after taking a leisure ride for 46 miles I reached Crawley. The route continues east to Groombridge and then south to Eastbourne and another loop to reach the end of the cycle route at Pevensey, near Hastings where William the Conqueror built a castle after the Battle of HAstings in 1066 although I had finished following NCR 21 and headed west for another 10 miles to reach Horsham.