Friday, September 11, 2015

Mystery tour, loop out from Biddenden.


Free parking in Biddenden village centre.
From the car park we headed south on the A262 and turned left onto the High Halden road, getting the legs spinning and warmed up on some tarmac. We followed the road past Turks Head Farm and to the entrance to the Byway listed as Gore Lane. It's a wide trail, running between trees, and ends up as a tarmac drive way past a farm and out onto the road.
This is the lane to the north of High Halden, we turned right here and the the first left onto Wrens Nest Lane ride this to the end and then turning right onto Hookstead, and then down onto the A28 (turning right, heading west).
On the A28, watch for traffic etc. and the restricted byway entrance is poorly signposted and looks like a drive to a house, it's not, and its about 100 yards on the left between two houses.
There's a gate at the start and then it winds down through the trees and stops, leading onto a driveway and out onto the lane. Here we made a cock up and went right, but we should have gone left, needless to say, one long loop around and we found the start of the next bridleway. 
Ride East along Harbourne Lane cutting through Pond Wood and Herontoll Wood, at the next right hand bend the bridleway starts. To be honest I'd avoid this if I ever went back, it's not sign posted and following it is a nightmare. We ended up asking someone if we were on it when it felt like we were in her garden. She was understanding and pointed us in the right direction, turns out it does go through some gardens and landowners are not keen to show where.
Anyway, we finally came out onto Redbrook Street, and turned left, following this over Plurenden Lane and up to Chequertree Farm and then left over to the A28, a quick left and then right takes you onto Green Lane, single track tarmac with a dead end sign. This leads you onto the start of the next byway labelled Gadsby Lane on the OS Map.
Its a well maintained trail, around the woods, and out onto PotKiln Lane. 
Between Dent's Farm and Brickhouse Farm on the right is the bridleway entrance, the last one for this loop, it's signposted and gated.
But. this is a mystery tour again, no route marked out in the field, we rode staight across the cornfield following the line of the path. Messy and unclear, it was a bit of a crappy end to the loop.
Back on the road and heading back to Biddenden, along Pook Lane and Cot Lane back to the A274 and the car park.





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