Daphne, starting in Crowthorne wanted to keep our ride to around 25 miles, so I planned a route to try to stick to that. We detoured immediately after we met at Bob's fish 'n' chips, so it ended a up a couple of extra miles. A few new lanes for Daphne today and an experimental route back via Spencers Wood for me too. There was a LOT of rain yesterday, so not surprisingly today there were a lot of puddles, some more substantial than others!
I stopped on my way down Blagrove Lane which was looking pretty with the blue sky today. A second stop near the junction of Doles Lane, since I liked the light today on the old sheds.
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| Blagrove Lane |
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| Blagrove Lane |
As I was photographing the old sheds, I was aware of a cyclists waiting at Doles Lane junction. It was Louise waiting to meet up with Debbie. Great. They had bumped into each other on our ride last week, and been in touch to go out together. They were heading to Crazies Hill.
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| Light and shadows at Church Lane Farley Hill |
Soon we turn left at this pretty cottage into Sandpit Lane.
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| "Old School House" Farley Hill, at the junction of Sandpit Lane |
I knew Sandpit Lane was going to have a lot of debris, so we picked our way down, but rewarded with some lovely view as we climbed up again where the road name changes to Nutbean Lane.
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| View through the gap in the hedge on Nutbean Lane |
These lanes are just a detour to stay off the Swallowfield Road for a stretch, but a slow detour today as we got stuck for a good few minutes behind a tractor cutting the hedges. With no space to pass, we just needed to wait until he reached some kind of passing space.
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| Flooding in the fields at Swallowfield Park |
Once on the Beech Hill Road, we turn right into Cross Lane, and stopped for our snack.
Fed and watered, we take off again continuing on Cross Lane heading to Grazeley. There is a tiny blue line on the map which is called Foundry Brook, and today it had burst it's banks. We had already been through several puddles, but all just a covering of water on the road, so on we ploughed and very quickly realised that this was a bit more substantial! No freewheeling through this one!! My feet were fully submerged and it was also quite fast flowing, so you had to work at it to keep moving. 😂 We got our feet utterly soaked. A white van followed us through and created a massive wash. If only we had been following him, we would not have gone through I guess. BUT we were fine. Infact Daphne was wearing waterproof socks, even though her shoes were full of water. I had my overshoes on, so had some leaking from the bottom up, but my overshoes worked a treat at dispersing most of the water.
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| Snack Stop on Cross Lane, Beech Hill |
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| Foundry Brook had burst into Cross Lane |
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| Floods at Foundry Brook Cross Lane |
Now we headed for Three Mile Cross, passed the AWE Burghfield site on Riders Lane, the once under the railway bridge, left into Kybes Lane. Daphne said she had not been here before, and checking my blogs she was right. (At least not with me). We crossed the A33 using the traffic lights and cycle paths. (I have used this route before to head for Lower Earley via Cutbush Lane, but today we needed to head back to Arborfield, so I tried a new route through Spencers Wood.)
Up a bit of a climb on the A3349, then we turned left into Clares Green Road, which becomes Ryeish Lane. Our second roadblock of the day was a dumper truck reversing towards us in a very narrow section. (This is in the middle of the new housing development.) We then come to a section which is "no entry" ie one way. But a few walkers convince us it's ok, so we tentatively go up the one way section. Nothing comes. The lane runs out and comes a rough path (fine on these bikes), to second new housing estate and we emerge not far from the roundabout on Hyde End Road, to join Arborfield Road.
We use the new Observer Way on the cycle path, but rather than climb up over the bridge, we opt for the old route on Swallowfield Road, passing Henry Streets to the Bull Pub.
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| Interesting sky from Observer Way Arborfield |
From Arborfield Cross, we head down School Road, and Daphne peels off into Barkham Ride whilst I come home climbing up the Barkham Road.
Sunshine disappearing by the time we got home, but so nice to see blue skies for a good part of our ride. And not cold today. We both peeled of layers of jackets and gloves enroute.