I saw photos of a poppy field nr Wilton Windmill, on the Beautiful Wiltshire FB page, so that was the starting point of our ride planning today. Ebikes, so ascents were added!
We started at Kintbury at the canal car park.
Route link screen shot at end.
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| Wild flower alongside the Canal at Kintbury. |
We usually climb away from the canal, and take the first left turn, but today for a change we took the second turn into Blandy's Hill. It's a steeper climb and heads to Inkpen, where we had an early tea stop.... 2.5 miles later! 😄 So, the cafe was on our left as we arrived. (More often our approach from different directions.) We are both trying to cut down on the cakes, so no cake today. 😖
I took my Fuji camera in an attempt to get some better photos of the poppies..... think I'm out of practice, and since it was in my bum bag, the ISO setting moved and I hadn't realised ! Photos not great, and I had a fixed lens which was fine for the big landscapes, but not good for things in the distance
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| The relatively new landscaping at Inkpen cafe is taking shape nicely now. |
We dropped downhill to pass Inkpen church, and at the junction, turned left towards Ham & Shalbourne. A bit of gentle climbing to pass Ham Estate, where I spotted some pretty coloured cows.
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| Coffee and cream cows. |
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| Passing through the pretty village of Ham, and onto Shalbourne. |
Passing Shalbourne village shop on our right we entered into new terroritory today. Rivar Road, which was a left turn, and time for power. It was steep!
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| Views part way up Rivar Road out of Shalbourne. |
But once up, a long long downhill though a very pretty valley with lot of crop fields, heading into Fosbury.
We spotted a red field in the far distance, and a windmill beyond, so we were getting close. We knew the poppies were on a section of the A338 at a section called "Picaddilly". We climbed a little up the main road to where we were able to pull over next to a couple of cars.
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| Windmill looking tiny on the horizon. |
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| Too far away. Brought the wrong lens. |
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| Mobile phone shot, zoomed in x 2. |
One more new section followed to bring us into Great Bedwin, and where John had the idea of a pub lunch. But it was heaving, so we didn't bother. Easier now and on familar lanes to Little Bedwyn and Froxfield, where we doglegged over the A4 to climb to Littlecote. (not done this for ages.) Easy on the ebike today, but have done it several times without the ebike.
Over the River Kennett and a right turn to Chilton Foliat passing the thatch cottages, and soon into Hungerford, where we did have a nice lunch at the cafe we have used before called Eliane. Lovely food, and we sat outside in the sun.
Finally over the cattle grid into Hungerford Park, where all the cows were gathered together under the trees, and today we continued straight through (not crossing the canal), to return directly to Inkpen.
A lovely ride, lots of crop fields, just an annoying wind to keep things cool. But finished around 19 degrees.
