Plan A - ride was supposed to be yesterday, but changed due to rain.
Plan B - Coffee stop was supposed to be Englefield Tea Rooms, but changed since closed Thursdays.
Plan C - return was supposed to be via Wall Lane Silchester. But that wasn't an option.... as we found out.
Plan D - lost the plot!
Due to wet weather yesterday, Wednesday, I changed the ride to Thursday. This meant that unfortunately several of the ladies due to ride, as well as 3 on the waiting list, couldn't make it today. So we were 3, which was bliss! 😂 (Thinking of making my rides max 3 in future. 😉) (Sue, Cathy and Jill were all out with a big group today, which was always planned for Thursday.)
I met Linda and Hazel H at Riseley at 9.45, in 7 degrees, so snoods and ear warmers on today. I also wore my boots, very carefully pulling them on since I put my back out last time I wore them 2 weeks ago. All good now. I put my Go Pro camera on my handlebars today, hoping to capture some beautiful Autumnal scenes on the go. But forgot to check my battery. It died after a few seconds. Doh. I didn't take my camera, thinking I wouldn't need it, so today's photos all taken on mobile phone.
Initially we headed to Beech Hill and to Stratfield Mortimer, turning right into Mortimer Lane and UP Nightingale Road. I was a little concerned that there might be a flood on Nightingale Lane, but it was fine.
route link
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Views from Nightingale Lane, Mortimer.
All very peaceful apart from two black Labradors barking the whole time we stopped here! |
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Hazel and Linda ready to drop down on Nightingale Lane, and hope for no big puddles!
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| Photo by Hazel. Me and Linda on Nightingale Lane. |
Next, a right turn to drop down steeply, and climb up again through Wokefield Nature Reserve area. Always looks pretty this time of year.
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| Linda ahead as we climb up to through Wokefield Nature Reserve |
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| Trees were so pretty today. |
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| The ferns were also a rich colour, but no light on them at this point. |
We passed through Burghfield, then at a X roads, right to Sulhampstead Abbots. (We come back to this X roads on our return loop later from the opposite direction.)
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| the very distinctive Sulhampstead Abbots Church. |
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Hazel has not been this route before, so a stop at the church and cottage.
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| Photo by Hazel |
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Hazel photographing the stained glass window,
which has some lovely woodland details. |
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| Pretty interior, but the light was not shining through any of the windows. |
We set off downhill now, telling the ladies the hills are done for now, but I always forget about the
next uphill passing the Police college entrance. But soon it IS downhill again , then very flat as we pass Hosehill Lakes into Theale.
The original plan (yesterday) had been to have coffee at Englefield Cafe, but since it's not open Thursdays, we went to try out a new cafe in Theale High Street that I had spotted a few weeks ago on a Pangbourne ride. We parked our bikes around the side, and were able to see them from our table.
We didn't actually need to go Englefield now, but we decided we would, since the trees there can look stunning this time of year. We passed through the quiet Hamlet of North Street enroute.
"This hill goes on a bit", said Hazel. It does. 5% to start with but then ramping up to 10% eventually.
The route from this point now had to changed, to avoid heading to Silchester.
Instead, we headed towards Mortimer, but rather than head down to through the village, I spotted a road on my map I had used once a few years back, called Drury Lane. A very pretty downhill!
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| near Reading Road, heading towards Mortimer. |
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| Views from Drury Lane. |
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Heading down Drury Lane.
Silchester is off to the right of this lane, so we are now hopefully passed the closed road. |
At the bottom of Drury Lane, we rode on Pitfield Lane to Stratfield Mortimer, then to Beech Hill again. Normally I would head back around Strathfield Saye, from Silchester, but flooding prevented that. (I fell off in very large flood there last year.... scarred for life! 😕)
We gritted our teeth to climb back up Welsh Drive, to drop down Bull Lane into Riseley. It just started spitting and spotting as we loaded bikes into our cars. We had seen a rainbow a few minutes earlier, which is never a good sign, and the sky was looking dark.
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| As I drove home, I spotted this rainbow on Swallowfield Road. |
Thanks to Linda and Hazel for your good company today. A lovely day to be out enjoying the seasonal colours.
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| The actual route, as opposed to the planned route below. |
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| planned route. |
