Breeze Cantley to Stubbings via Bray. 30 miles and BLOG NUMBER 1000!

First a few notes on my cycling blog, since today is blog number 1,000! 

I started making a few notes just for fun to accompany my photos, when I joined British Cycling Breeze Rides in September 2014. The aim was to give myself an "aid memoir" of the route, who I was with, the weather, the landscape, the cafe stop and any other points of note to remind me of that particular ride.  Then a few people said they actually read them, and now I know quite a few people who not only look forward to them, but share them with their families too. 😊

I began to take more time to describe the routes so that anyone reading could hopefully make sense of the route, and help THEM to become familiar with the routes too. I  am always amazed when local ladies still don't know where they are even after riding the area for several years. 😂

My Blogger statistics tell me that they have been read 49,600 times over the 10 years. 

I wrote about 50 blogs per year to start with,  then in 2020 Covid temporarily changed everything. I decided to retire a little early, and had more time on my hands to cycle. Since then, I have written approx 150 blogs each year.   With my husband, we have cycled in France, Croatia, and Italy. In the UK, we have cycled  in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Yorkshire, and more locally in Hampshire, West Berkshire and Wiltshire. With girlfriends, I have cycled several times in Suffolk and last year The Cotswolds. ( A bit more hilly than Suffolk!) This year we are booked for touring Wiltshire. 

As a Scot, I thought it was time to take our bikes to Scotland, (whilst we still have it in us), so in May we are cycling The Caledonian Way from the Mull of Kintyre to Inverness, then in June from Vienna to Budapest. So, I can't stop yet! 

My Garmin stats report that in 2024 I cycled 172 rides, covering 4,700 miles and climbed 207,000 feet.  The very strange thing is I lost no weight! 😕😂. 

Thank you to all my regular readers, for giving me a new sense of purpose writing these blogs. I had thought maybe I should stop when I reach 1,000, but I thought that when I reached 100!

And now to today's ride. 

Route link

Last week, whilst visiting a churchyard,  rider Karen who has just recently joined Breeze, asked if I had ever seen the snowdrops at Stubbings Church? No, so that was my plan for today. There are  various routes to get to Stubbings from Wokingham, but I chose to ride via Holyport and Bray, a 30 mile trip.

The ride filled up very quickly, and since Champ Rose was also joining me today, I added a couple more places so that everyone who wanted to come, could join us.  10 is a big group, so on any busier sections of road, we split into two groups.

I recently bought a drone, which can very cleverly do several automated moves, as well as manual control.  Since it was nice bright day, I took it along for just a handful of shots to have some different photos to celebrate blog number 1000. I will make a short film too, but for now, a few drone screen shots. I look forward to using it with fingerless gloves rather than the winter faff of gloves off/on. 

"Dronie " shot as we all meet up at Cantley.
Louise, Karen, Kim, Gill, Sandra, me, Amanda O, Linda, Amanda T and Rose.

We headed to Binfield Road and then to Ryehurst Lane, before joining Westley Mill Lane, where I requested a stop to set up the drone to "Follow" us. Incase of tree branches, I had it set to head height. I wasn't sure how it would cope following a group, rather than just an individual. It didn't seem to mind at all. 😅

Drone in follow mode, as we peddled along
the quiet Westley Mill Lane. 

I am familiar with a little display of snowdrops further along this lane, so asked them all to stop for a minute, whilst I went ahead, put the drone at ground level, then we all rode past it. 

Amanda and Rose passing the hidden camera.

Kim and Sandra 

At the end of the lane before the sharp bend, we stopped for a final time, whilst  I put the drone in the air  in "spotlight mode". This mode tracks you approaching and moving away, and turns to keep you in the shot. So clever. Even I can do this!

Here we all come at the bend in the lane.....

... and there we go as the drone tracks our movement.

No more messing now for a few miles as we joined Howe Lane, and through Paley Street to Holyport. Continuing into Bray, a brief stop at the Churchyard to see if there was a snowdrop display there too. Quite a few riders had not  been here before. 

Bray church. Lovely light, but no sign of snowdrops. 

The ancient gateway into the church. No way of bikes going
through these double gates, just pedestrians. 

Just across from the church, we now turned onto the lane called The Causeway, and another chance for a drone shot, this time the riders going UNDER the camera overhead. 

Drone shot as they all go under it and onto the bridge
on The Causeway, Bray.

I of course had to wait to collect the drone then dash to catch them up. My poor Orro Gravel Bike is in for a repair, so I rode my Ebike today. That was quite handy at times to catch them up. We used the traffic light to cross the busy road at Braywick, and soon into Kimber Lane to use the pedestrian bridge over the A404.  We were now almost at our teastop at 15 miles, but everyone seemed surprised when we pulled up at an unkown cafe (to them), as they thought we were going to Stubbings Nursery cafe. (they hadn't read the ride description😉😄)

We stopped at Ockwell Park today, because it was half way. Ive been a couple of times, but new to others. The only problem is that there is a softplay area for young children just through a separate door and to start with we got invaded! But they all disappeared again pretty quickly. Phew!  But I am told the coffee was all good, and nice and hot. 

A wiggle through Woodlands Park area, and a busier couple of miles towards the A4 roundabout and onto Henley Road to where the church is, just after the entrance to Stubbings Nursery.

I spent a couple of minutes doing some filming, before realising I hadn't pressed record. Cameraman's nightmare. Never mind, I filmed a couple more shots as we enjoyed a tour of the churchyard and it's impressive stock of snowdrops. 

Photo by Louise. Me controlling the drone
using an app on my phone. 

Photo by Louise.
little grey drone flying over the snowdrops. 

final shot with the drone as it flies between the 
guard of honor. 

Our return loop was via Burchetts Green, Littlewick Green, White Waltham, and Shurlock Row.

A beautiful sunny day to be out, and a big thankyou to the ladies today for your patience as the new pilot gets to grip with her new toy.  I'm sure you will get to know it well over the coming months on our travels. I might even need a volunteer as co-pilot.  Don't all rush at once!