Just Jeanette and I free today, so I opted to take my ebike too, and planned a route with a few hill climbs included. The "young ones" away on yet another family holiday, Andrea not free, and Gill and Louise just completed Coast to Coast Devon trip last night with Clare and Kim . (Looked a lovely trip. Well done.)
Jeanette not free till 10ish, and we then drove to Crazies Hill. (John left the house for a solo ride today at around 9.30, and as we approached Crazies Hill, there he was, about to climb the hill.) I had invited him to join us, but he said no. So once we got organsied, he joined us to start our ride, heading down Aston Lane. The road approaching it has just had that awful loose gravel surface thrown down. It was not very pleasant to ride on! John left us at the Flowerpot then he continued to Henley and home.
Route link screenshot at end.
Almost as soon as he left us, we joined a queue of CAMERVANS heading down the lane to the river! WOT!!! They were arriving for the Rewind music festival, and we could not squeeze past all of them due to their width.
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We squeezed past some but not this one.
A bit scary unless you KNOW they have seen you in their mirror. |
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| Tranquility resumed as we crossed the river. |
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| A beautiful day, and forecast for sunshine and 30degrees. |
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| lol. Mans best friend out fishing with him |
Through Hambleden and we took the high road to see the valley views and I was amazed that Jeanette had not been here before. The hedges get in the way this time of year, so held my camera over my head.
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| View from North End Road |
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| And up hill now to the long avenue of trees. |
We had climbed into Turville Heath on Wednesday on our Breeze ride to the vineyard, coming up Balhams Lane from Stonor. Today, after our tea stop at the Barn "Ploughmans cafe" (open Wed-Friday only), we would then drop down to Stonor Valley.
When planning this route, I was struggling to fit in a teastop. The Barn used to only open at weekends, and last night I googled the site to just check. Eh voila! A hatch on Wed- Friday, serving Ploughmans, and Pizza, (during summer holidays!) Perfect.
Heading down the hill, it is a loooooong hill, which is probably why it feels like a long hill coming up it too! lol Jeanette went ahead, as I said I might stop for a photo which I don't normally do coming up! But the hedges all too high this time of year. I eventually stopped at the bottom where the cows were.
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| Quite a few were heading to this corner to go into the next field |
At the bottom Jeanette announced that she had left her water bottle at the cafe! (we had taken them off to refill). We could quite easily have climbed back up, but she decided not that important. I shared my water for the remainder of the route.
A climb now out of the other side of Stonor Valley up to Maidensgrove and Russel's Water. A long hill, which the WLCG have done, but not Jeanette on that occasion. But much easier on an ebike. 😉😂
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| Sunflowers on the way up. |
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Looking back to the hill we just came down from Turville Heath
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| The vast open area at Maidensgrove |
At the Five Horseshoes in Russels Water we stopped just to see the view from the pub garden, but the pub garden looking rather neglected, with dead plants in pots. A man then approached us, and informed us that it closed about a year ago, with uncertainty about it's future.
Main road now all the way to Nettlebed, where a stop at the Cheese Shed was a reserve option for this ride, if we hadn't felt hungry enough at Turville Heath.
A very enjoyable few miles followed now under shady trees canopy, and downhill, to Highmoor Cross. My route was to use Rock Lane to Greys Court, but Jeanette not keen on gravelly downhills, so we ignored that turn, and took the fork to Shepherds Green a few hundred yards further along. I had only done this once before, with John who got a puncture here.
We climbed past Greys Court, and continued straight on all the way to Henley dropping down on Gravel Hill. This little scene ahead as we arrive. Apart from the yellow lines, this looks timeless.
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| Gravel Hill dropping into Henley |
Over the Thames and along Remenham Lane, which had no entry for traffic to the festival, thank goodness. They instead were bringing the traffic in via Remenham Church Lane, which did cross at one point into the field area. Once in the field, they were separating cars from campervans and heading them off to where we had encountered them this morning.
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| Festival traffic viewed from Remenham Lane, |
And with lots of battery power left, stuck my bike on RED up Aston Lane to the top. Fabulous. It was hot now, so glad to finish without having to struggle too much.
That was fun! And Jeanette who is off to cycle from Aberdeen to Inverness next week, is now very confident in her hill climbing ability. 😎
