Romford to Brighton Ride 2nd June 2011

I left Home at 0510 hours to cycle my way to Brighton. I made my way through Chadwell Heath,Dagenham and onto the cycle route and cycle superhighway alongside the A13 until Beckton and made my way down to the Woolwich Ferry. Once at the Ferry I had to wait about 10 minutes as the ferry doesn't start until 6am.
Once off the ferry I made my way up the Grand Depot Road(A205), This may become sketchy as I really don't know where I am in the maze of SOUTH London lol. Anyway up the A205 crossed Shooters Hill under the A2,up as far as Catford where I turned onto the A21, along as far as The Croydon Rd (A232) ,Any further on the A21 and I'd be heading towards Hastings! Still playing this by ear, I followed the A232 to Shirley and onto Croydon. What's with the trams in Croydon?? They take up whole stretches of road that nothing else can use, I was afraid when crossing the tracks the bike wheels would get stuck in the grooves!!
Anyway got on the A23 to Brighton from Croydon which took me through Coulsdon,Reigate and Banstead,Redhill Horley and then past Gatwick Airport.

I continued on the A23 through Crawley, The A23 then became more like a motorway wirh three lanes and I needed to get off. I came off at Handcross through Cuckfield where I saw a sign for Turners Hill in the opposite direction. That's one big hill from the BHF London to Brighton bike ride I've missed out :).
I got onto the NCN route 20 that follows the A23 and went through a few pretty villages Sayers Common was nice.

Further along the NCN 20 I saw Ditchling beacon to my left ( The monster from the BHF L2B ride);

and to my right the huge Devils Dyke,

The NCN 20 seems to go through the two missing out 2 huge hills, I wanted another go at the beacon, but after 60 miles at this point I was knackered anyway lol.

I eventually was on the home straight into Brighton, that was heaving with traffic with queues miles long trying to get in. Negotiating through this was a nightmare, eventually I made to the beach after 6 hours and 20 minutes of cycling, where I had a small lie down by the pier followed by chips and and a drink :) before a grand tour of Brighton trying to find the train station and the journey home.

75 miles to Brighton and a total of 80 miles for the day and a total ascent of 3105 ft for those of you that think I did no hills because I missed the Beacon and Devils Dyke.