This year, for the first time, we’re starting to look at riding beyond the confines of the Surrey Hills.

Largely as the result of an unhappy combination of too little time, too little money, young kids and unsympathetic spouses we haven’t managed to ride outside of our Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill, Box Hill, Ranmore and Headley stamping grounds. Now we’re making plans for a few tentative outings to vary our trail riding diet.

First up, a trip to Bedgebury Forest on 13 May. It’s not far for us, consists of a short 12km of singletrack plus what they term a ‘freeride’ area and comes recommended by Neil who’s been there a couple of times. Definitely a growing bike centre which we’ll post a review of after our visit.

Next, at some point over the next month when the weather is looking promising is my plan to ride into central London using the Thames towpath from Hampton Court, three men in a boat style but without the dog. I don’t know if it’s entirely possible without nipping along some London streets courier style but I do know there’s plenty of stop off points along the way (read pubs).

After that, on 2 June is our planned trip to South Wales to visit Afan Forest, a requisite pilgrimage for anyone who Mountain Bikes in the South. I’m looking forward to it immensely as it should suit my new bike perfectly (more of that later).

Finally, toward the autumn there’s a plan to entire the Marin Dusk til Dawn (D2D) on the weekend of 6/7 October which is being held in Thetford Forest in Norfolk. We’re currently scraping one or possibly two teams together but the Moles will have to make do without me. Unfortunately the event takes place right on my wedding anniversary and although I could go, I can’t really justify it to myself. Had the anniversary fallen mid-week I would probably have felt more comfortable about it but there’s always next year.

So all told, an interesting mix of jollies in the pipeline and we’ll of course keep you updated on how they all go.