My birthday today, and with sunny weather forecast, John suggested a ride with ebikes to West Wycombe. The clocks went back an hour last night, so with the combination of an extra hour and sunshine, quite a number of cyclists and walkers out today.
Route link screen shot at end.
I've had too many gloomy autumnal rides, so it was fabulous to see blue sky today at last.
 |
| Photo by John as we set off towards Crazies Hill. |
 |
| I've tried wearing my new distance glasses for my last two rides, but couldn't decide between those or sunglasses today.... so wore both! 😎 (now I need to get prescription sunglasses, since they worked well) |
 |
| The fence colour a perfect match for this tree! Did they dash out and paint it yesterday? |
 |
| This cottage with it's coal fire burning behind The Flower Pot, Aston. |
 |
Alongside the path that runs down to the Hambleden Lock. |
 |
| The River like a millpond this morning as we crossed the weir. |
 |
| The gulls enjoying the sunshine, which was a very pleasant 15 or so degrees at this point. |
John's
So, until now, we haven't used the power button, but that was all about to change to climb Rotten Row. It's fine to start with, but peaks at around 17%, but also it has large chunks of flint stone down the centre of the narrow lane, so you cannot afford to veer off course at all. I haven't tried it without my ebike for a long time, but must do it soon.
The gradual climb followed from Rotten Row, all the way up to Freith crossroads, and continued to Lane End. Nothing too steep, just all uphill.
From Lane End, we crossed over the M40, and along quiet lanes, heading for the massive drop down on Bullocks Farm Lane, to West Wycombe.
 |
| I always stop at exactly the same point since the hedges are a bit too tall to see much elsewhere. First views of the Mausoleum in the far distance. |
 |
| A bit further down the steep hill. I passed John on the way down who also stopped for a photo. |
 |
| At the bottom and where we ride on the A40 for a couple of hundred yards. John left his glasses at the photo point! But he couldn't face going back up. 😔😕😖 |
Fellow Breeze Champ Sue, had been to a cafe called The Apple Orchard in West Wycombe in the summer whilst on a caravan holiday. I had told John about it, and he had been a few weeks ago, but this was my first visit. It's a bit clunky getting into the back garden area, where the bikes go, since you have to down quite a few steps.
 |
| The Apple Orchard, West Wycombe. There are several small rooms of tables as the building is long and thin, and quite a few table outside too. |
 |
| Birthday cake. Warmed Orange and Pistachio cake. Very nice, but also very sweet. John had the chocolate version. |
 |
| Quite a few more cyclists, including this lot, arrived whilst we were there. |
The alternative cafe in West Wycombe is called The Walled Garden, which we have also been to, but today it had loads of families doing "pumpkin patch", choosing their pumpkins. They dont grow the pumpkins, so its all a load of American nonsense to make money by dumping some pumpkins in a field! It looked busy as we passed, so just as well we had planned to use the Apple Orchard cafe today.
Soon we disappeared into the very pretty and quiet Bottom Lane, towards Radnage. We have often experience large floods on this lane, but thankfully not today.
 |
| From "the top" of Bottom Lane. |
 |
| My camera still in for repair, so mobile shots from me today. |
 |
| This beautiful little area further along Bottom Lane. I might just have removed a large building in post production! |
 |
| Managed to mask the offending building with this shrub on the left but which meant losing the winding lane. |
 |
| A little detour to Radnage church, where we have been before to have a quiet sit on a bench. But today, a walking group in, having their picnic lunches and all benches taken. |
 |
| Radnage church |
The temperature at Bottom Lane, in sunshine, had been very pleasant at 17 degrees, but that last few miles with cloud cover, had dropped to a chilly 11degrees. We stayed under cloud until the end of Hambleden Valley, when at last blue sky returned.
 |
| We escaped the big grey cloud, after we got to the far end of Hambleden Valley, to cross back over the weir. |
 |
| One of my FBook friends had mentioned bikes, cakes, and sunflowers on her birthday emojis. So here are some flowers at Hambleden Lock. 😂 |
No boats allowed through at the moment since the Thames is running high and fast.
Lovely day to be out, and since we are collecting grandkids Jack and Holly tomorrow to stay over for a few days, we have no "Monday" ride with friends tomorrow, as we often have after a hilly Sunday ride!
Jamie joining us for dinner, to deliver his birthday card. 😊
