E-bike Sunday has been revived after a week off😊. Quite an undulating ride today, so the power came in handy from time to time, especially as the blasted wind was strong again today. John has done much of these lanes before, but a few new bits for him too, as we set off to try out a cafe called The Yard at Chilton Candover, suggested by friend Karan a while ago. Its an old cow shed, and only open Fri, Sat and Sunday.
Route
Parking by the canal in Odiham meant an initial climb up Odiham High street, and continuing on a familiar route towards Greywell direction... but not that far. Instead at one the early junction, we turned left on Bidden Road and instead of right, to Greywell, we continued straight on.... into the wind! We continue straight all the way to Upton Grey, where the pond is on our right.
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| Passing the pond at Upton Grey, we continue on the main road |
As we approach Weston Patrick a few miles later, we detour leaving the main road, to loop out the back to see the church and have a nose around.
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| interesting house next to the church |
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View opposite the church of Weston Patrick village
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We continue with a gradual then steeper climb, towards Herriad, before a right turn into Bell Lane, towards Ellisfield. (next photo)
We stop a little further out of Ellisfield, passing these gorgeous bluebell woods we we look up to out right.
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| We rode past loads of swathes of wild garlic today, very pungent at times |
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These cyclists shot straight passed the bluebells!! One shouted to his mates "Did you
see the bluebells?"..."No" was their reply. |
Crossing a road, called Berrydown Lane, an immediate climb now through more bluebells woods in an area called Moundsmere. I went ahead, and stopped at the top for John, and this was the open view at the top.
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| Moundsmere area |
Nr Bradley, we drop down a hill, then turn right onto a very flat area and head for Preston Candover.
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| Views to the right as we drop downhill to Bradley |
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| Views left of the above photo |
The road through Preston Candover is not the most exciting, a B road but with fairly fast traffic at times, and we continue passing the shop in PC we had used once before continuing on to Chilton Candover.
The only problem today is that there is a sportif going on, and unfortunately a load more cyclist are also heading for The Yard. However, we get straight into order but then need to wait a while for our food delivery to our table. (the shop had not been informed about the sportif, so they were very apologetic about the wait).
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| Delicious cakes. |
Shortly before we left, a couple arrived and I said to John I was sure I recognised the lady.... but where from? Amazingly I remembered that we chatted to them many months ago at the ford at Bucklebury where they were interested in our Orbea ebikes. She has ordered one, but still awaiting delivery. Small world.
Retracing our route most of the way back to Preston Candover, we now turn right at the church, and its a gradual climb for a while, passing the fields where last time we past this way there were detectorists in the fields. We pass through Lower Wield, and much of this area is now large expanses of crop fields.
It's a immediate climb, and John's chain comes off, but we are soon off again heading up hill. I came down this hill a couple of weeks ago on Linda's "Birthday Ride" to Froyle, but not been this direction before. Lovely road, with beech trees on both sides. We continue on this road ignoring Xroads where the turn off to Upper Froyle is on the right, and later turn left which is a short sharp hill. ( I have also approached this in the opposite direction and it passes a field on the left with horses). This is heading for Long Sutton.
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| Arriving with the pond ahead at Long Sutton |
Left at the pond, then very soon right into Wood Hill Lane, continuing to the end, where it joins Long Lane all the way back to Odiham.
Very nice route, and useful at times to have a little power assistance. 😏
