I decided that as it was not a day for rushing I'd go with Pete S on an alternative route up and over Farthing, down to Bletchingley, Nutfield, past Priory Farm (good cafe in there) and then round Redhill aerodrome to Salfords and onto the cafe from Horley and Povey Cross.
We started off with 6 but no one seemed to notice that we arrived at Charlwood with only 4.... We didn't have any problems with ice, survived any potholes we hit but it was the flock of partridge (Pete, you were right) which did for us or at least two of our group.
As we started out the otherside of the hollow where Priory Farm is we were well spread out - Pete S in front, followed by Andy, Robin, then myself with Geoff and Pete K (Kozlo Pete?) behind when we suddenly realised 20-30 partridge were trying to cross the road from our side. Not quite sure what happened but the shout went up of easy and we all slowed down. There were cars coming towards us but the partridge were spooked enough to head back the way they'd come so by the time I got to where they were they were almost off the road. But then out of the corner of my eye I suddenly saw Geoff well over to the middle of the road , there as a shout and suddenly he was heading for the road head first, closely followed by the other Pete.
The car that had been coming the other way very kindly stopped and, after dumping the wife and daughter out to go to the cafe, the driver took Pete back home along with his bike as he was quite shaken by his fall having hurt his knee and grazed his face. Geoff continued on to the station at Salfords, where some kind soul had turned the sign round so that it faced into the houses opposite, to get the train back home. Unfortunately Geoff's bottle wasn't so lucky - I went to move his bike right out of the road because a great chelsea tractor was going by and Geoff's bottle had come out of the cage and as I picked the bike up to save the wheels being run over the bottle rolled a couple more inches out into the road and I had to watch as it went under the rear RH wheel...
Hope both you guys are OK - especially Pete as we were rather worried about you.
After that it was all a bit flat - the rest of the ride to the cafe was uneventful. After tea and crumpets I left with the first lot (unfortunately most of the TG types), held on to just past Horley/Meath Green and then just battled the head wind on my own mostly back to the cafe though I did pick up with Graham and Pete H at different times. I think the cold is really draining me at the moment... A cuppa at Nonna Rosa's and then off to Sutton with Steve B and Kevin as I was cat feeding for a friend while he was away. At least his cat is friendly unlike mine
Good to see you out Marky Mark