My Breeze ride today was billed as a flattish ride of 28 miles from Cantley to Holyport cafe, but via a different route than the most most obvious one. Since it's been reasonably dry, and with strong winds, the off road sections were hopefully going to be ok.... we are about to find out!
We started by climbing Carters Hill, by which time, we were all feeling much too warm. It was already about 16 degrees. The main difference today was that it was very calm. We have had gusty winds for weeks, and it last it felt warm enough for fingerless gloves.
We dropped down Billingbear and straight over into our first track. It was pretty dry.
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| nice and dry on the path. |
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| Top of the unnamed track, where there is now a sharp right turn onto tarmac. |
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| Hill Farm Lane to pass the Bowmen of Warfield Archery club |
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| alongside Amanda on Hill Farm Lane |
We crossed Ryehill Lane into Cabbage Hill Lane, and along the pretty Hazelwood Lane. A few muddy sections, but on the whole, it was fine.
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| Hazelwood Lane. |
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| Hazelwood Lane. Well done to Rose and Amy who rode through this muddy section. |
A left turn and along Bottle Lane next, and down and out of the Westley Mill Lanes. 2 groups along Howe Lane, where a road cleaner was moving slowly, and where at the same time, a male cyclists decided to overtake us despite the fact a car was coming straight towards him. Idiot.
It was good to see some activity at the demolished Royal Oak pub at last, and hope the reconstruction is now going ahead. Left a little further in to Paley Street (street), and time to stop once more to remove more layers. It was really warm now in the sun. We rode over the M4 pedestrian Bridge, and dropped down on Snowball Hill track. Just a couple of muddy sections here, but again mostly ok.
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| Snowball Hill track, heading for the tree tunnel to open crop fields. |
The crop fields were ploughed but not planted. The poor farmers waiting patiently this year for the right time to sow. (rain due today and tomorrow.😔) A right turn onto Woodlands Park Avenue and then into the quiet Ockwell Road to soon walk across the pedestrian bridge over the A404, into Kimber Lane, which is now ruined by developers.
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| Dropping down from the bridge into Kimber Lane. (a bit of a bridge theme going on today) |
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| Kimber Lane. Soooo sad to see house building here. |
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| along the edge of the A404 at Braywick. Camassia Leichtlinii |
We used the cyclepath alongside the A308 to get us around the corner, and then into The Causeway to cut through to Bray Green, with its magnificent Chestnut Trees.
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| The Causeway at Bray Green. (using Amy's bike as a tripod) Louise, Amanda T, Kim, Amy, Me, Rose. |
The original plan was to ride through Bray to Holyport. But it was such a nice day, that I offered to take them instead to Dorney Cafe, just adding a couple of miles, and rejoining our route later in Fifield.
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| Bray Cottages |
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| Monkey Island Lane, with Wisteria at its peak. |
Not far after the cottage, a left turn into the cycle track over The Thames pedestrian bridge.
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| photo taken by Rose as we crossed the Thames into Dorney. |
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| Dorney garden centre cafe. |
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| We had a little visitor. (photo by Louise. mine was rubbish!😅) |
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| Nice area to sit in the back too, but drinks only served in cardboard cups here so got the thumbs down. |
We retraced our route back over the bridge, avoiding BOLLARDS (which were mentioned a few times today). Infact this route is to be known as "THE BRAY BRIDGES AND BOLLARDS" ROUTE. (I think it's Bollards.... or something similar. 😉😅 There was a lot of Bollards being discussed in general. )
We needed to get a move on now, and from Monkey Island Lane we crossed to Fifield to climb to Drift Road, where after a right turn and half a mile, we disappeared into the track called Hogoak Lane. At first, when I sunk into mud, I thought this was a terrible mistake. But it was ok, and some of the ladies loved it. (me not so much. I'm a wimp. A shame Gill wasnt with us.) I was happy to get back onto tarmac now, as we reached Nuptown Lane. At the junction, a Porsch was parked up, and the driver with his window down, asked if there was a garage near? He had run out of fuel. Did we feel sorry for him.... plonker. 😜
Our final few miles were via Warfield, Cabbage Hill and then on the cycle path on Temple Way up to Binfield. I've not used this before, but anything to ring the changes of how to get to Binfield. From Binfield we whizzed down the Binfield Road back to Wokingham, and got to Cantley at exactly 2pm. One rider had a bit of deadline, so we were back in good time.
Thanks for your good company as always, and I am glad that a few new lanes, pathways, bridges and bollards, for some of you.