Odiham to Chocolate Frog, Oakhampton - 28 miles

I was at Wisley Gardens yesterday on a photography course, and spent several hours on my knees crouched down with my macro lens. As a result, today my legs are burning! And that's before I started this ride. So, definitely  an ebike day, and I definitely used the power "as required" 😖

Route

We had no route as such, since all in John's head, but my idea was to ride to the Chocolate Frog.There is a Heathland next to it, and I was hoping that the thousands of ferns would all be emerging and looking beautiful. I took my Fuji camera just incase...

We climbed away from the canal in Odiham, and headed towards Well, passing the RAF Odiham landing lights near Long Sutton. I felt there might be a photo there, but some of the Rape fields in the distance were very patchy looking, so decided against it. Young farmer practicing his crop planting? They looked a mess! 😉

We climbed on White Hill to Well, then a right turn at the "Well" on Well Lane, towards Froyle. Soon, on our right a blue haze and a lovely patch of bluebells, so we stopped for a few minutes to photograph.

Well Lane, Well.

We dropped down to Lower Froyle, then continued downhill to pass Isington Mill, climbing up again after Mill Farm shop. It is not usually open on a Sunday, but it appeared to be today. We continued on since we were heading to the Chocolate Frog. At the top of the climb away on Isinglton Road, a blaze of yellow from the crops. 

Just one tiny, tiny cloud.

We crossed straight over London Road, and soon we were in Binstead, and around the church on the bend. There was some orange plastic netting around the church today, so not at all photogenic. Not far round the corner, on  the narrow Church Street, we had to pull over a couple of times for some cars heading towards us. Seemed a bit unusual for this narrow road.  Then it happened again, and again, and the cars were mostly old classic cars with badges on the front saying "DRIVE IT DAY".  This is a group of car owners who dust down their old cars and actually drive them. We saw MG's,  Jags, and many other classics. They seemed to come passed in groups of 3 or 4, and eventually I suggested we just wait until they had passed. We pulled in to wait at this next photo, still on the long downhill of Church Street. (Had also stopped here on the way up this hill on a previous ride.. its a long hill).

Waiting for the cars to finish coming towards us.

So, of course no more came! We set off down the hill, then heard cars behind us!! They had turned round and were coming back.😒  Three MG's passed, then we shot off, and lost them as we did a left/right dogleg as we crossed the B3004. 

We now passed Shortheath Common, where I was hoping for the stunning display of fresh ferns, but there were none. They were all still brown leaves. But never mind, the cafe is less than a mile away. 

Lime and Orange cake for me. Yum.

Black Forrest for John

Fed and watered, we backtracked to Oakhanger, to climb the nasty hill to Hartley Mauditt. It's tough, but fine with the Red power on today. We passed one cyclist on our way up, but didn't let on that we had power. 

Top of the climb on Hartley Mauditt Road, and pulled over for a car to pass.

St Leondard's Church, Hartley Mauditt, just opposite Hartley Pond
where someone was fishing, and a couple picnicking. 

As we faffed around here, the cyclist from the climb caught us up, and was now ahead of us. This road didn't quite come out where I thought it would, since I was expecting Selbourne Road, but that was parallel to the next road we crossed at East Worldham. A right/left dogleg this time, towards Wyck. I recognised the name, but nothing in particular was familiar about the next road, but all very pleasant as we road around the edge of a field, on Clays Lane.

At London Road (which we had crossed further along on our way over to Binstead), we crossed back over, and I then recognised this section, a road with no name, but which also does an L shape around a field, and drops down to a bridge to cross the River Wey. (There is an option of a steep right turn just before the river, which is a link road back to Isington Road where we photographed the Rape fields. (ah ha! I now understand.😂)

River Wey near West End Flower Farm, at Froyle with its pretty water fall.

A dash across the A31 at West End Flower Farm and Hen and Chicken,  and up we climbed to Froyle. Some lambs in the fields on our left nearing the top. 

These 3 lambs were amused by this branch. 

Passing Froyle Park, we dropped down though Froyle, then the slog back up to "Lower Froyle" which always seems counter intuitive. We are now back to the junction which we passed earlier approaching from Well, (Isington Mill downhill to the right), and now turned left. I had not climbed this hill for a long time, but know that it goes on and on, and on, and eventually a steep right turn, just at the point where your are knackered, and we are at "the field with the horse". This is because there used to be a horse in this field yeas ago, but I've not seen one for a long time (coming the other direction).  But today.... a horse" . So, its still ok to call it the field with the horse. 😉

The road with no name... but "the field with the horse" not far from Lord Wandsworth College.

The Ukranian Flag flying opposite the horse field. A sad sign of the times, with the Russian invasion.

At the junction in Long Sutton a quick check of the pond, where we spotted 10 tiny ducklings. 

Ducklings at Long Sutton Pond.

Left then first right after the pond, and onto the easy going Wood Hill Lane to join Long Lane, and we once more passed the RAF Odiham landing lights. But from this direction, a chance for a photo, with a decent field of Rape as the backdrop. 

Matching yellow landing lights of RAF Odiham

Almost back to Odiham, then downhill all the way to the canal. My legs are weary, and the wind got stronger throughout our ride. So annoying!