Sulhamstead from home - 35 miles

on

John planned our route today, which included a couple of lanes new to us, near the M4 around the old gravel pits and Burghfield sailing club. We crossed the M4 twice, and it was a good day to do it, since it's closed for the weekend. It would normally be pretty noisy with traffic in all the lanes in that locality, so that turned out to be a bonus. 

Route

We started by riding on Edneys Hill, then up School Road to Arborfield. It was a very cold day again, below zero the entire ride, but I was fine by the time we climbed up to Arborfield. Since the roads are quiet due to Lockdown, we used the main A327 to Shinfield, then down Church Lane and eventually crossed the A33 at Three Mile Cross. We have done this a few times recently, but today, we turned right (rather than left) on to  Kybes Lane, over the M4, which then changes to Kirtons Farm Road serving the sailing clubs on the old gravel pits. You don't get to see much of the water due to foliage.

Crossing the M4 near Greenpark on Kybes Lane



Just after the M4, this interesting colour combination at a house on our right.
The front  door was also pink

Just beyond the primrose coloured cottage, a serious flood across the road. John went first! It was fine, so I followed sticking to the center of the road.

A section now on the Burghfield Road, which had more traffic then we expected considering a lockdown, which continued into Dean's Copse Road too. At the junction with Dean's Copse Road, we stopped for a photo of the distant trees still shrouded in mist. 

Dean's Copse Road, Burghfield

Passing Hosehill Lake, we turned right into Bottom Lane. Although familiar with this area, neither of us had ridden Bottom Lane before. A nice lane, but a few areas with mini streams crossing the road to the fields on our right, one of which had several horses. Seemed a shame for them to have a wet field to stand in.

Bottom Lane, Sulhamstead

It's called Bottom Lane for good reason.... and now a climb. We normally climb Sulhamstead Hill, but soon turned off into Kingston Lane, which was still up hill..... just on a different route. This becomes White Hill. At the top. I noticed the ice on the branches of this tree. There had been lot of drips from trees on our ride, as they defrosted, but this still thick ice. (The roads were dry so no ice on the roads).

Icy branches at White Hill, Sulhamstead

Now through Wokefield Common to Mortimer. A nice down, followed by a not so nice up, and soon we arrived at the pond next to the war memorial. We stopped for our snackbar and chatted to a man doing some pond maintenance. He was in waders, and said he wasn't cold. Brrrr. 

A quick stop at Mortimer pond

Familiar route  home to through Stratfield Mortimer, Beech Hill, Swallowfield and Farley Hill.

It took me a long time to warm up after our snack stop, and a cold ride all the way to Swallowfield, but over Farley Hill helped to get my fingers back. Hot soup for lunch and a bath to thaw out. Brrrr. A cold day. The forecast was for 3 hours of sunshine, which we never saw.