With lunch at The Woodspeen in the diary today, and due to collect Linda and Andy at noon, a quick ride this morning with John, and since he has been to Henley a lot this past week, we went south.
Once down Blagrove Lane, we turned right into Evendons Lane, and continued all the way to the end, joining the Barkham Road. Up and then down, and up again to School Lane, Arborfield. My legs seemed a bit slow to warm up this morning, and didn't seem to be much freewheeling! Now a gentle downhill all the way to Church Road, Swallowfield, where we pulled over for me to remove my jacket layer. A cool start, with a bit of a breeze today.
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| Church Lane, Swallowfield. Hay already cut and baled in dreaded plastic. |
Into Swallowfield, left at The Street, then Trowes Lane, and Charlton Lane, where this Himalayan Balm is looking very colourful, even if it is a thug.
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| Himalayan Balm |
Crossing to Barge Lane, and a bit pushed for time today, I suggested we cut through on Spring Lane. (The one that is an unmade track mostly). Other than a few muddy bits, it was generally fine, and got us safely over the A33. We then turned into Bull Lane and under the A33, and immediately right into Sun Lane. We had to question where the path had gone as we crossed over the road next to the building site, as the workers were literally putting in a new kerb to the housing development. They were taking up half of the public path with concrete haunch! We questioned this, but they pretended not to speak English. 😕
The path soon widened and we continued over again at the end to join the Devils Highway, a bit messy at times, all the way to Thatchers Ford. Since John had never been through Bramshill from Wellhouse Lane, we turned left here and made our way through Bramshill. I almost missed two deer on our right as I was watching the track in front of me, but fortunately John spotted them. (One hidden behind the left tree trunk). They stayed still long enough for me to get one photo.
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| Crop of top photo. |
Since Nine Mile Ride is closed, we arrived at Eversley Mill, but turned away from it, and continued to Eversley Cross, and up to the Greyhound Pub. It's due to reopen, any minute now, infact staff were having a meeting in the garden, no doubt training. Now to Church Lane, Finchampstead and returned via Nashgrove Lane.
Lovely lunch at The Woodspeen. Always a treat with their inventive menu.