A repeat of parts of Sunday's ride, but shortened to around 20miles for a few of my Breeze friends. They were not familiar with any of this route, and they all seemed to really enjoy it. The weather helped too!
The team, Carole, Ravinder, Linda and Bev. This photo of me taken by Ravinder. These jackets are a nightmare for photography! Looks like I am radiating!
The route takes a few seconds to open.
We started at Stoke Row, then down to Checkendon to see the amazing bluebell woods.
Next through Checkendon, passed and around the Equestian centre, a couple of left turns, passed the Blue Tin Farm, then the big downhill to Hailey. A mile or so beyond the turn for the King William pub, turned right and a bit of a gentle climb back to cross the A4130, then straight over again continuing to the lovely downhill run into Eweleme.
None of my friends had been before, so a stop off at the Church and Almshouses.
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| Eweleme Almhouses garden |
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| The Almshouses entrance. |
Now onto Benson to the Waterfront Cafe
So here we are at river level..... no prizes for what happens soon! Flat to Crowmarsh Gifford, then at the 14 mile mark, up Cox's Lane, where at the top the views really open up once more.
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| Taking a breather after our climb up Cox's Lane |
I gave them the choice of back the way we came, or Berins Hill. ( They had no idea what lay ahead!) We decide to do Berins Hill. Hats off to Carole and Bev who made a great effort to get much of the way up. The rest of us got off and on a few times.
Then back to the start with a brief stop at the Maharaja's Well for the obligatory photo.
Well done team. Hope you can join me again soon for a different route.