Today's plan had been to ride from Riseley to Pamber End. But with the forecast promising rain until mid morning, the plan changed late last night to stay local IF the rain had passed through. Thankfully it mostly did, and a slightly smaller group met up at Woosehill at 11 o'clock. A couple of ladies pulled out, which is understandable, since it was uncertain if we would get out at all.
With no particular plan, apart from not going to Wargave, where I am leading a ride tomorrow, we left Wokingham through Emmbrook, and that was where we encountered our first set of roadworks of the day on Toutley Road. The potholes have been bad there for a very long time. So, that was good.
We used the new cyclepaths to Oakingham Bell, and continued to climb all the way to Jocks Lane, where we enjoyed a long downhill run. It was raining, but only very lightly, so everyone was happy to keep going.
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| Jocks Lane Tennis court. Not the ideal weather today. |
We were now heading to Moss End direction, but stopped briefly on Cabbage Hill for a team photo.
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| Chestnut fencing has been added around the planting since I last stopped here. Not very pretty, but it gave me a post to put my camera for our selfie. Sandra, Linda, Louise, me, Amanda T, Kathie. |
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| Grey, grey, grey at Cabbage Hill |
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| We couldn't decide what the tall buildings behind the houses in Bracknell are. Does anyone know? |
The next set of temporary lights were a 4 way set as we came out of Watersplash Lane. We continued over here to drop down Osborne Road, and to Malt Hill. A terrible bit of driving by UPS truck driver who overtook us on the Ascot Road, with a bend ahead. Thankfully the lady driving towards us slammed on her brakes, avoiding a horrible accident. Idiot. I hope he has dashcam which he had to submit to his employer. 😡😡.
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| Big truck delivering horse supplies to the Farm shop. We sat inside. |
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| delicious sausage roll with crisp pastry |
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| 2 shared a tuna/cheese panini |
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| Soup for someone else |
A lovely relaxed, chatty lunch before we headed to use the loo, which is this blue door on the side of the farmshop. (although Linda says there is also one inside, which we didnt know about.) We watched the HUGE lorry which had been offloading as we arrive, appear from the back of the building and navigate this tight corner!
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| What a responsibility! I gave him a round of applause as he passed!! |
I gave them a choice now, of repeating a little of what we had done, to return by Bottle Lane to Carters Hill, OR continue to Fifield? Fifield got the vote, so we split into 2 groups on the Drift Road for the downhill run to Fifield. We often leave this road if going to Holyport or Bray, but today we continued straight on and pulled over briefly into a driveway opposite this pub, to get a few cars off our backs.
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| Money Row Green. As we stopped, Amanda realised her mudguard had come loose, so a quick repair before we set off again. |
We passed more roadworks, with temporary lights, and more again at the Ascot Road Junction! We tucked in tight behind the cars then peddled fast through the lights, pulling into a driveway to get all the cars behind us passed, before our right turn towards Paley Street, with nothing now behind us.
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| A breeze had picked up as we passed through Shurlock Row, as the Willow tree demonstrates. |
Back via Hurst, and a surpise colourful display at the pond. A local lady told me they were made by the "Knit and Natter" group. Some crochet obviously too.
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| Easter Chicks at Hurst Pond |
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| Every post had a colourful chick. From here I invited Louise and Sandra to lead us home. |
Thank you to all for being so flexible. Always seems a shame to cancel a ride just because the forecast is not the best at 9 o'clock. It wasn't sunny at any point, but it was 13 degrees, so we didn't suffer.
