Today's Ragstones ride begins on a bracing January morning at John and Dydiane's house in Willesborough. A small group of bewildered neighbours has gathered to witness the departure. Across the busy Hythe Road, towards South Willesborough, for the first couple of miles, the formidable foursome of Peter, Ruth, Norman and John follow the cycle paths by the East Stour through some of Ashford's most breathtaking scenery, past the Designer Outlet centre and nearby As...

Deal Seven of us left Ruth and Robert's house an January 20th on a cold and bitter day. Stuart, a new recruit, had joined us for the first time. Past the High and Dry pub, we took the track that parallels the A256 to Sandwich. At Eastry, at John's insistance, we took a diversion to visit the oldest house in Kent. This seemed to be masquerading as a fine Georgian mansion next to the church. We all rubbished John's source of information, until he took us round the...

In the bleak mid-winter not that long ago, snow was falling (again) snow on, snow on snow. This was what Norman saw when he looked out of the window whilst having breakfast on the morning of this ride. His enthusiasm for the ride waned but he was spurred on by not wanting to appear a wimp and because Peter had kindly arranged the ride so that Norman could meet the others at Aldington (Quarryville) Village Hall. This was because of his sloth in not clearing his dr...

Rye Harbour to Winchelsea The icy wind, icy roads and the threat of heavy snow didn't stop the intrepid Ragstones from acclimatising themselves in readiness for the next iceage. Norman, Rosemary and Christine (welcome to her first trip with the Ragstones) elected to walk, whilst John, Ruth and Peter ignored all the perils and set off across the Harbour towards Winchelsea Beach, though the Nature Reserve. The hazard of riding into a (small) blizzard was only usu...

Lyminge - Kingston - Elham It wasn't the best weather we'd ever had - in fact it was awful. But nevermind. Fully kitted out with whatever waterproof came to hand, The Ragsones (welcome to the new member, Jane) set off from the car park at Lyminge Forest for a ride over the hills to Kingston (it should have been Barham, but Peter insisted on taking a wrong turn). The ford at Barham provided a temporary rest stop before the route started climbing again - over ver...