Monday, and lovely to see Linda and Daphne again after a break of a couple of weeks. (Longer for Daphne after her epic Morocco trip, which was interesting to hear about). We rode to SOL, but I tried to vary the route a little from previous rides. (gets harder to do something different!)
Meeting at Linda's, we climbed Wick Hill to then drop down Dell Road, and rode on Fleet Hill to Eversley. I don't use Fleet Hill very often, but it's a good surface, gentle undulations, and other than a few passing cars, not very busy. Then through the village and right into Warbrooke Lane, where we continued straight to join the Bramshill path, near the ford. Just as we arrived at the left turn, some foxgloves on our left. Linda got confused with turn, and ended up in a private drive.😂
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| Not the ideal backdrop, but nice plants anyway. I hoped to see more on our travels. |
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| As we crossed from Bramshill into Plough Lane, this lovely horse coming towards us. |
Crossing at the Shoulder of Mutton, we took the turn to Mattingly, and just before the church, this amusing scene of a cow standing to look over the fence. We assumed it would back off as we approached... but it stayed.
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| Daphne feeling brave since the fence was between her and the cow. It didn't eat the grass. Maybe wasnt feeling well? It was very calm. |
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| More rain just as we were about to set off from SOL. So we hung on a few more minutes, and it was blue skies. |
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| Great Dover Street near Stratfield Saye. Very pretty with the cowparsley lined edges. |
I held back to take the above photo, then to two riders pulled over to let me pass. I got chatting to them, and they agreed that I could take the next photo for my blog. They told me the horses as ex Race horses. Beautiful animals.
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| The two ex Race Horses. |
Peddling now to cross the A33 at the Wellington Arms, we passed a dustbin truck at the junction. Linda and I got ahead of it, but Daphne got stuck behind it. We then pulled over to wait for Daphne and the truck passed Linda and I .... with inches to spare! Not a wide road as we climbed to pass Daneshill School. From time to time, the truck stopped so we just held back . No point catching it up again. Eventually, we pulled over for the final time, next to this Laburnum Tree.
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| Beautiful Laburnum, as we waited for the dustbin truck to turn around and pass us once more. |
Straight on at "the green triangle", where we had approached from Bottle Lane, and continued staight now to cross at The New Inn, Heckfield, and up Laundry Lane. A few sightings of wild foxgloves amongst the woodlands here, but a bit too far for a decent photo.
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| Skirting the edge of Wellington Country Park. the Rhododendrons in full flower. |
Just passed this photo, we spotted a red deer, which followed down the fence line for a hundred yards or so. Very pretty, but then it disappeared. Right at the Xroads at Devils Highway onto Ford Lane, then left into Wellhouse Lane to come full circle back to Eversley Mill. Daphne's Garmin beeping much of the way, since "her" route was not the same as the one we rode. I guess that's good? Must have found another way to get to SOL and back. 😂