With the promise of sunshine and mid 20's today, it was a little disappointing to be wearing a light jacket to start off with.... and no sign of sun. Just grey clouds. 😕
Route link screenshot at end.
I met the 5 riders at Woosehill this morning and we left via Chestnut Avenue, to cross the field to Sadlers End. Still nice and dry despite a bit of rain at the weekend.
Then down to cross the river at Sindlesham Mill and soon joined the traffic free cyclepaths through Lower Earley. Once passed the Shinfield Studios I spotted the track which would part of our return route, to avoid the A327. This track has recently been improved. I not ridden before, but know of two ladies recently who had.
Passing Shinfield Church, my usual links to get across the A33 at Three Mile Cross, and then we were heading to Grazeley Green. I noticed Janet a little behind before the group turned into New Road, so I held back to wait, whilst the others continued. As Janet caught up, I came to Caroline off her bike on the slight rise.
I asked Caroline if she was ok? Chain off?
"Major Mechanical", she replied. 😖
Her derailleur was basically caught amongst the spokes of her back wheel. Proper stuck. We tried our best to release it, but nothing worked. (she has just had her bike serviced). I suggested we needed to move to a safer spot if she was to call a taxi to collect her. Karen had come back to check what the delay was, and then returned to the rest of the group with the news that we were walking.
Just at that point, a driver passing, put his window down to ask if we were ok?
It seemed a bit pointless, but we said if was kind enough to take a look, that would be great. He was Dutch and knew about bikes he told us. He was very concerned about Caroline turning her beautiful bike upside down, and even produced a piece of cardboard to put under her seat! 😃
Long story short, Sef tried and failed to resolve the issue. We thanked him for his kindness, and when we said we would now call a taxi, he asked where she had to get to. And then insisted on taking her and her bike in his car to Woosehill, where she had parked. Amazing. I was a little worried since we had never met this kind gent, so I asked him if it was ok to photograph his registration number. And he didn't mind at all. Caroline sent me a message once she was safely reunited with her car.
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| Sef, our knight in shining armour, except that he also couldn't fix the problem, but took Caroline and her bike back to Wokingham. 😇😇😇 |
We continued all the way into Mortimer, to climb up The Street and take the left turn into Pitfield Lane. Rather than continue all the way on this lane up to Silchester, we turned off at a bend to "cross" Clappers Farm Ford". We normally use a bridge here, but there was no water so straight over today on the slightly damp road, but no visible water.
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| An empty ford at Clappers Farm. |
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| Next to the ford. |
From the ford, a left turn and just before the railway bridge, a right turn to take us to Bramley and our coffee stop at The Barn. The sun came out literally as we pulled in to park out bikes!😎
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| Janet, Louise, me, (new Breeze top!), Karen and Amanda T |
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| Spotted at The Barn carpark. Nice Chimneys. |
Nice coffee and chatty break, before we continued passed The Barn for about half a mile, before taking a right turn into what soon became Ash Lane. Passing two lovely thatch properties, a left now into Frog Lane. (we could have gone straight on and not turned into Frog Lane to join Bramley Road at this point, but did a little loop first... think I got away with it!). So, a loop of Byres Lane to swing around to Bramley Road and to climb Church Lane to Silchester.
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| Beech Hill Church. Such interesting stone work. |
Our favourite climb over the A33 into Spencerswood, where we wiggled through the pathways to emerge at Ryeish Green.
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| Cows not looking as we turned off to cut through to Ryeish Green. |
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| OK, so finally one did look. |
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| I asked a walker to take this photo as we joined the path we had come down on our outward trip earlier. All in teeshirts now. And warm. |
A little repetition of our outward journey, as far as Shinfield Studios area, and then we joined a beautiful tarmac track. (I believe Jill came this way a couple of weeks ago).
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| Fabulous new surface here, means we can avoid using the A327 to link to Arborfield. |
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| The tarmac does change to rough hardcore surface, but still very good, as we soon cross this bridge over the Loddon, and arrive at the University Farm |
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| Views to our left. |
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| Crossing the Loddon. (A tiny fisherman on the bank of the river) |
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| More cows not looking at the camera.😂 Half a dozen calves. |
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| And my final offering of cows not looking. They were on a mission to get somewhere. |
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| Our second ford of the day, at Carters Hill, nr Sindleshem had a bit more water, but still not deep. |
Almost back, as we joined Sadlers End again off Bearwood Road. Janet carried straight on along Sadlers End, whilst the rest of us returned to Wooshill.
Thanks for your good company ladies, and hope you enjoyed todays route. Caroline's bike now back at the bike shop for a repair.
