A Breeze Ride again today, (comes around so fast), and I chose to lead a ride to Flat Harry's bike cafe, on the edge of Cookham. The shop relocated from Cookham High Street in May, where they had no cafe facilities. I was there on the day it opened with some friends. Time to go back. It was 30 miles from Cantley but for those ladies who peddled from home, a few extra miles on top.
Route
We headed out over the motorway bridge, though Hurst Lanes, and onto the Straight Mile. We often turn right into the other Straight Mile, leading to Shurlock Row, but today we continued on the road to take the second turn into Hungerford Lane. Along the left side of the main road there has been a massive amount of tree clearance, but only a narrow border between the road and woodland area. Were the trees dangerous? Will be interesting to see what, if anything, replaces them all. Not a big enough area for house building, thankfully.
Once into Hungerford Lane, we took the first left and rode on West End Lane all the way to the T-junction. Left again, and soon over the 5 way junction into Waltham St Lawrence, where we stopped briefly at the church.
 |
WSL Church, next the The Bell PH.
The blue team...Beth, Amanda O, Angela, Louise. The purple team, Amanda T. |
We did a loop around the back of the village on Halls Lane, where we passed Shottesbrooke House, rear elevation, on our left.
 |
| View to Shottesbrooke House, from Hall Lane. Looks quite tiny from here. |
 |
| View on the opposite side on Halls Lane. |
After a few hundred yards on the B3024, we turned into the track to Shottesbrooke.
 |
| Shotttesbrooke. |
 |
It was blowy day and loads of leaves were falling.
We watched one in "slow motion", as it gracefully turned and twisted. |
 |
| photo by Angela. thank you. |
 |
| The Lake at Shottesbrooke. The leaves wont last much longer. |
 |
Since a few had never been, I showed them the dark tunnel
which can be part of a nice walk from WSL. |
We exited onto Butcher's Lane, then used the bridal circuit through to White Waltham, and climbed on Cannon Lane to cross the A4 Bath road into Newlands Drive. We wiggled our way through to emerge at Pinkneys Green Cricket Field.
 |
| Malders Lane views to Long Lane, which we had ridden down. |
 |
| Malders Lane |
 |
Malders Lane. We had climbed a big to this point, so time to remove a layer.
Another very mild October day. |
We used Golden Ball Lane, then joined Lee Lane, skirting Pinkney's Green Common. Such a pretty area, and the grass all fully recovered after summer droughts. A bit of traffic on the next couple of sections, as we made our way back towards White Waltham on Canon Lane, to join Woodlands Park Avenue. The road surface here is about the worst you can find, but it's traffic free mostly.
I suggested we spread out a bit for the uphill section of track to cross the M4 pedestrian bridge. I usually do this section the opposite way! We made it, but as we started off again over the M4 into Paley Street, a shout behind me. "STOP!" Oh dear, I assumed a puncture. But unfortunately it was a broken chain on Amanda O's bike. Nothing I could do about that.
 |
| Broken chain is not something that can be fixed on the roadside! |
Beth very kindly offered to call her husband who was available to help. I gave him some directions, and we left Amanda to carry her bike to the tarmac section of the road, so that he could collect her. (She broke down on a pedestrian section. ) We passed him on our way back on Howe Lane, so she didn't have to wait too long. Thank you Paul!
We did the little loop around Westley Mill Road, then the slog up Billingbear Road over Carter's Hill, and back to Wokingham on Warren House Road. Well done ladies, and thank you for joining me this morning.
 |
| My final bit home on Chestnut Avenue. |
