I thought ........Wouldn't it be nice on a summers day to have our teastop at the Cricket Pavillion at Silchester? So when I posted this ride last week that was the plan. Then came the threat of thunder storms by early afternoon, and temperatures around 28degrees,
So yesterday, I suggested pulling our start time forward to 9am start (which everyone was happy with), and that would allow us to get back before the hottest part of the day, AND avoid the thunder storms. By this morning the threat of thunder storms had disappeared, which is really annoying, since some garden plants are now wilting. 😖
Rose assisted today, as she has done a few times now with different Champs. But she was also very excited to share the news that she had led her OWN ride on Monday from Ascot. Well done Rose! 😇 She shared the Let's Ride link on her local Ascot page, and got a few ladies sign up.
We left Woosehill today through the woods and Sadlers End, heading to Bearwood Road, down Mill Lane Sindlesham and joined the Lower Early Cycle Paths along Cutbush Lane. Over the pedestrian bridge of the M4, and soon joined the cyclepath opposite Shinfield Church.
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| Shinfield Cycle Path. |
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| Reading Town Centre in the far distance. |
Crossing the A33 at Three Mile Cross, we passed AWE Burghfield, on the appropriately named Riders Lane, which had seen from miles off as we cycled through Shinfield. After the undulating Goodboys Lane, we turned right into the main gates of Wokefield Park.
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Wokefeld Park. One of several stops in shade this morning
to make sure we drank loads of water.
Clare, Louise, Amanda T, Caroline, Jeanette and Rose
(this was meant to be a whole group shot, but my camera fell of my saddle at the crucial moment ) |
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Some lovely drifts of wild flowers in several places
as we rode through Wokefield Park |
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| Leaving by the back gate of Wokefield Park |
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Next, we climbed "Barking Dog Hill", and
were not disappointed. 😂 |
Through Mortimer, and we enjoyed the long drop downhill on Turks Lane, all nice and shady, with just the short hill at the end to spoil it as we joined Pitfield Lane, and the farm. A bit of uphill now to Silchester Church, where the downhill followed to join Bramley Road. Not far now to Silchester Cricket Pavillion. It was pretty hot by now, and we opted to sit INDOORS, which was lovely and cool. 😂
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| Scorchio sitting outside. So we didn't. 😎 |
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Silchester "pop up cafe". Wednesday and Friday only.
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Rose thought it was funny to photograph me
with this enormous (delicious) Almond Croissant.
(which was too big to finish, so she helped me.) |
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| Revenge. Rose getting stuck in to my leftover. 😉😅 |
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The Olympics were on TV right next to us (with sound off)
so we enjoyed a few moments watching. Amanda in particular looking our for Bums. 😅
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| (photo by Rose) |
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| GOLD for Britain! With a photo finish. Not MY photo... obviously 😅 |
I had felt a bit like "Mum" today, making sure we had lots of water breaks, the plan to finish our bottles and refill at the cafe, which we did. We left doing a circuit around Wall Lane, and retracing our route this time downhill from Silchester, before a right turn, over the railway line on Park Lane. I may have vaguely noticed a ROAD CLOSED sign as we turned left onto Mortimer Lane, but so often you can get through, so ignored it. However we faced this strange scene, with barriers across the whole width of the road!
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What on earth is a car doing beside that huge pile of mud
with a spade sticking up?
(photo by Rose) |
There were no workmen. Just this one guy with a spade, moving mud from around his wheels!!! We opened up the barrier and pushed out bikes through of course. What happened I asked? "Got my car stuck in the mud." Didn't ask ..... But HOW we all thought?
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| How rediculous is this? |
We all had theories of what he had been up to of course....
- Was he on a stag night and had his car was dropped from a helicopter into a pile of mud?
- Did he have a body in the boot which he has going to bury?
- He said he was waiting for friends to come and help him, but he also said he had been there since 7oclock this morning. What friends?
And lots of other theories, but maybe he was just plain stupid to try to drive his car over a pile of mud?
Along Beech Hill road next to Spencers Wood, and an attempt to push our average speed up from 10.5 towards 11mph. It crept up, but in the heat, all too much trouble, so I settled for 10.7 by the time I reached Spencer Wood.
A wiggle through Shinfield followed, hoping to emerge at Shinfield Green...... and we did! (It changes every time I go here). A short section along the A327 to Arborfield, and then we rode through the university farm track back to Sindlesham.
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| Into the university farm track, off of Church Lane. |
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Good concrete track most of the way before we join the muddy tracks
which were completely dry and fine today. |
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| We met a cyclist on a mountain bike who was telling us about a route he uses to emerge at the film studios, crossing the river. Might be worth investigating as a summer cut through too? |
Back to Sindlesham and we retraced our route via Saddlers End to Woosehill.
Thanks ladies for coming out to play in the heat, which was very nice in the shady lanes. I wasn't the least bit hungry for lunch today. Wonder why?😂
