After a miserable 48 hours of rain, rain and more rain, I drove to the Pet Barn Sonning Common today, where Steph joined me. I planned the route to avoid the worst of the Chiltern pothole lanes, after the heavy rain. (John and Dave did the same route a few minutes ahead of us, so that we would be back at the cars about the same time)
Route
Initially over to Kidmore End, where there was the inevitable flooding across the road at the church. Along Wyfold Lane, where we stopped to peel off a layer. (It was warmer than we thought!)
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Wyfold
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We turned at the Wyfold X-roads along the pretty lane then up Hookend Lane to Checkendon. Then second left with another climb before dropping down the steep Berins Hill. I've not done that route for a long time. After we dropped down, a bit of climb up Well Road to the xroads in Ipsden.
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Steph heading up to Ipsden, as I stopped for some photos
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Views back to where we dropped down from Checkendon
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Views towards Ipsden
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| Looking back from Ipsden |
The climbing done for a while now, so across Ipsden, down to Crowmarsh Gifford and then stopped for a couple of photos in Preston Crowmarsh.
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Smart driveway in Preston Crowmarsh
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| Preston Crowmarsh |
As we pulled on to the busy A4074, Steph overshot the cafe stop at The Waterfront Cafe, but fortunately realised I wasn't following.😆
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Waterfront Cafe
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Bumped into these old timers
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| Susie's recent hire boat? |
Part way through Benson, we took a left turn heading to Berwick Salome, then a sharp right and through Roke, where this pretty pub is. Home Sweet Home.
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Home Sweet Home pub in
Roke. (not open) |
Now into Ewelme and passing the duck pond, we take the right turn up hill, stopping at the top to look back over Ewelme Almshouses.
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Looking back to Ewelme
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| Top of the hill, Ewelme |
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Stephanie. Almost at the top, before the next big climb to Nuffield
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We climb to Nuffield, Steph doing really well to keep going, but complaining that she hasn't done many hills for a while, and feeling it today. I was on my ebike today mainly because my tyres are better after 48 hours of heavy rain. But also, because I have experienced some chest pains over the weekend, and thought wise to not push myself, so used my green button on some of the steeper hills. Otherwise, loved it with no power on the easier sections, and we kept a good pace of 12.4mph average, with 25.9mps top speed.
We caught up with John and Dave as we came through Stoke Row and enjoyed the downhill back to Sonning Common.
Once home, still experiencing chest pain, I decided to phone the GP who referred me to A&E. Had a long afternoon of sitting about and had ECG, blood test and Chest X-Ray. All clear, but still have chest pain. Hmmm.
