Summer has finally arrived, or so it seems. The weather today is excellent. The sun is shining. The wind is calm. Perfect for a very long trip and I am up reasonably early for a sortie to the deepest south. My normal set of ingredients have been carefully packed into my backpack and I start my journey by cycling down through Streatham – past lon14 that I photographed during sortie iii. The car dealer is still there but this time around I don’t stop.

The mile counter on the GPS is still reading a double-digit number, but I am not really paying attention to its small LCD display, as it’s a lovely ride. I step on my pedals and continue via London Road and Brighton Road towards Croydon with its magnificent tram system which leads me to Purley – where my first two points are.

It is very quiet here. People are most likely at work. The playground is empty. A few cars drive by. Waypoint number one, det32 is located at the edge of Purley with aircrafts departing Heathrow flying right over my head. It is always good to be reminded that the waypoints I am ‘visiting’ actually exist in one shape or another (exist is probably the wrong word – virtual is probably a better one). The second destination of my journey today is just around the corner from the first and easily done. A man is washing his car while curiously looking on as I point my camera in the direction of Heathrow some 20 miles away. I smile and cycle away without saying anything.

From Purley the next couple of points are quite a bit further away in Redhill, which is a handsome stone throw from Gatwick airport. The roads are wide, the traffic good. Just outside Redhill I cross the M25 for the first time on my many trips. Redhill is like most English cities. Un-interesting with a complex one-way traffic system. The points I am aiming for are actually located outside the city and I have to battle a rather steep hill and many tight turns before I eventually find my way to point number three of the day.

Relying entirely on the GPS device for navigation sometimes feels like a bit of a gamble. I am so far outside the reach of the London A-Z that it is completely useless. Why did I bring it along in the first place? After a lot of wrong turns, the arrow is finally pointing in the right direction.

The next waypoint is located in the middle of Redhill Aerodrome, a small local flying field used predominantly by a range of small Cessnas and a couple of helicopters. A BBC chartered Helicopter is doing some engine runs. A camera has been placed at its nose.

A small Cessna 172 is taxing for take-off, as a Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 is flying overhead at a couple of thousand feet – possibly destined for Minnesota. It’s followed a couple of minutes later by an Easyjet, not going to Minnesota or even Detroit.

It’s nice to be able to get close to the action here. I rest in the shadows of a hangar while watching the airfield. Half an hour or so later I continue to the next waypoint located a couple of miles away. Though I find this one incredible difficult to locate. I continue to cycle around and around, circling the same area trying to find a way in. Sometimes in these situation I am lucky and get it right the first time, but there have certainly been occasions where I have been cycling in what seems to have been the right direction only to have turned around after hitting a dead end to find another way to the waypoint. After a couple of hours circling the countryside outside Redhill I make my way into the city centre for my long journey back to Brixton.