Met up with Stephanie today at Mill Lane. I've not seen her for weeks other than on Zoom calls, so it was lovely to catch up. Stephanie likes to push herself a lot more than I do, so I opted for my ebike to have the option of using a bit of assistance on some of the longer slogs of hills, but by no means all of them. We did an average of 11mph which considering 1400 feet of climbing is pretty good.
route
Into Harpsden, we took the right hand fork up towards Greys Court, then behind Greys Court to Bix.
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| Pulled of the road for a few mins for a water stop at Bix Manor |
Now we crossed the main road into Bix Village and took Rectory Lane, down to Middle Assendon.
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| Views from the very potholed Rectory Lane |
In the Stonor Valley, the flax crops are just beginning to show signs of blue, so must be back in a couple of weeks to see them. Beyond Stonor House, a right turn up the hill to Turville Heath, and a right turn then towards South End. Then through the woods which emerge at the Vineyard, where we stopped again to look across the valley towards Frieth.
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| Steph heading down Dudley Lane, to the Hambleden Valley |
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| Views from top of Dudley Lane, looking across to our next climb up to Frieth |
After the climb to Frieth, we enjoyed to lovely downhill of Pheasants Hill into Hambleden. My top speed down hit 25mph. The shop are doing take away tea/coffee, so after waiting for our turn outside, we picked up our drinks and went to sit by the stream. It was idyllic today with warm sunshine (26 degrees).
A good natter, and it was all downhill or flat now back to Henley crossing the weir and along Remenham Lane. We took a look at riding back to Mill Lane on the towpath, but it was a bit busy with walker, so opted to ride the main road back to our cars.
A lazy afternoon awaits!
