A bright Sunday morning, but with remnants of Storm Amy which hit yesterday. Not with rain, but very gusty winds. We parked at Wargrave and used our ebikes for a route we have done a few times now to West Wycombe.
My Gopro 8, now several years old, (current model is 13), has started to let me down on occasion with the power button not working reliably, and also poor battery life. So I have been researching for a new action camera. The most direct comparison with Go Pro 13, is the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro. Having satisfied myself that was what I needed, John promptly offered to buy it for my Birthday/Christmas. 😍 Since it's not my birthday until end of October, I was a bit surprised to get an email to say it was arriving yesterday! So, I took it out today to use as my "camera" and not for video, just to check out the dynamic range and ease of use. Very impressed so far.
Route link screen shot at end.
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A bland boring sky to start off with, but nice colour along
Highfield Road, Crazies Hill. |
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| Approaching Hambleden Lock |
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This is a difficult scene to capture with the brightness of the
water. Did a pretty good job of preserving the detail. |
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We took the first right from Hambleden Valley road,
to Rotten Row! A climb!! Loads of sheep today in the fields near Hambleden. |
My Garmin recorded Rotten Row as 17% gradient. I have yet to try this on my normal bike. I doubt very much I could do it, since its a bit too long. But could always get off and walk.
A gradual climb all the way to Frieth via Parmoor passing a couple of farms, then straight over towards Frieth Road. A right turn at Frieth cross roads, still climbing to Lane End.
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| Approaching Lane End. |
Over the M40 at Lane End, and the road mostly levels out now before a big drop down to West Wycombe. We stopped at our usual photo stop, with the Mausoleum in the far distance. I also checked my rear brake on it's on own on the way down this steep hill, to realised it was doing absolutely nothing!
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And a few yards further down the hill, John
climbed onto the high sided grass verge to capture this one. |
We opted to stop at the Walled Garden cafe. It was bit chaotic and noisy with a kids party in the building on the left below, but worse was a group of young girls (a sports team), making a huge row. We sat outside.
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This picture not so successful. I had hoped it to be in full focus, but
its blurred in the closest areas. Guess need to be just a bit further back. |
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| view from the Walled Garden Cafe. |
We left the cafe, and were fighting straight into a head wind as we headed to Bottom Lane, nr Bledrow Ridge. Such a pretty lane, and now with puffy clouds, it looked gorgeous today.
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| Bottom Lane |
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I tried a selfie, but the button is quite hard to press when held
at arms length! |
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| Bottom Lane |
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| Bottom Lane |
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| Bottom Lane |
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| Bottom Lane |
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| Bottom Lane |
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Waiting for John on Bottom Lane.
He had stopped for photos too. |
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I had to lift the shadows in the hedge,
but the details are all there. |
The climbing starts again now, as we head to The City, and a couple more times my Garmin showed 15+ % gradients. Then after Waterend, we crossed the A40 and dropped into a wooded area passing through Horley's Green, called Bigmore Lane.
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The light came and went and sometimes we
missed the opportunity by seconds. |
Back over the M40 now and into Chequers Lane to drop into Fingest. Frustrating that the views are often hidden behind hedges, but we found a couple of gaps.
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| Chequers Lane |
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Chequers Lane
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| Bottom Lane, taken by John. My arms not long enough😂 |
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| Popping out at Fingest Church, from Chequers Lane. |
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| Opposite the church with the hill to Frieth behind. |
A pleasant ride through Hambleden Valley to finish our ride back to Hambleden Lock. Used power the last few miles, and our average speed until almost the end was 9.6mph! Pathetic, but it's quite a tough ride, and we had loads of photo stops. And since we walked over the weir in both directions, that didn't help.
