Despite Google Maps telling us cheerily that it will take an hour to cycle to Hutchinson’s Bank, it actually takes us two… along a ridiculously circuitous route… and dumps us in New Addington, rather than Featherbed Lane. This is the furthest I’ve been for the Challenge.

At last we find the entrance to the reserve and lock up our bikes.  This feels like the first countryside I’ve been in for a very long time and the reserve looks exciting. It’s on the south west side of a chalky hill and is a mixture of grassland – some close-cropped by sheep – and woodland.

Revived by lunch, we begin botanising and there’s lots to see.  We particularly enjoy the swathes of yellow rattle, fluffy kidney vetch (in picture) and exquisite quaking-grass, a typical chalkland species, and my favourite grass.