No Daphne today for the Monday club ride, but I invited Kim to join us, since she has been thinking about it recently, but it never yet worked out. Her husband Steve (on school holidays) was also free to join us. First time we have all met Steve. He was not familiar with the area we were riding today, but enjoys one of my routes around Odiham, so similar ups and downs on country lanes.
I had looked at cafe options and being a bank holiday, some were closed. So I planned a route to arrive at North Stoke Golf Club, which would be open today.
Route link (screenshot at end)
I took my action camera, to capture the route, without too many photo stops. So the majority photos are video screen shots.
Meeting at Sonning Common, our usual route to Kidmore End church, and over to Wyfold area. We started in a cool 6 degrees, although Dave arrived in his shorts!
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| Kidmore End church junction, where we turned right. |
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| John and Steve, turning into Wyfold Road. |
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| At the Wyfold X Roads, after removing snood and jacket, we turned left to climb Deer Lane up to Checkenden.  |
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| Passing Checkenden church, and soon a left turn to pass the Equestrian Centre. |
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| We kept on straight ahead at the equestian centre, to drop down Bottom Lane to Braziers Park. (bluebells on the way down.) |
Steve was well ahead, and braver than me with so many pot holes and gravelly bits on the road.
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| Passing the first farm near the bottom of the hill. Blossom looking beautiful. |
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| The transition in the landscape as you emerge out of the tree canopy here is always surprising. |
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| The second farm building on Bottom Lane, and a sign of bright yellow rape crop fields ahead. |
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| Bottom of Bottom Lane! Steve, Dave, John and Kim. |
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| Alongside Steve as we climb a slight elevation away from Bottom Lane to Braziers Park T Junction. |
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| Dave catching us up at Braziers Park junction. |
We take a left turn here to soon cross the A4074 into Icknield Road, but later will arrive back at Braziers Park junction from Ipsden to repeat this lane with a right turn.
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| Heading to cross the A4074, to join Icknield Road. |
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| Dave and Kim climbing the rise on Icknield Road. |
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| At the Pig City Junction on Icknield Road, where we turn right to pass the farm on Grove Road. |
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| Lovely light on the freshly ploughed fields at Pig City |
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| Terrible surface as we pass the farm on Grove Road, but a nice landscape to connect to the B4009 |
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| alongside John on Grove Road. |
At the B4009 (Wallingford Road) junction a right turn to climb a slight ride to South Stoke, where we leave the main road, for a U-shape route through the village, to pop out again to continue along the B4009 to Little Stoke.
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| Kim and Steve on the B4009 to South Stoke |
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| South Stoke. Pretty village. |
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| And now a nice downhill into Little Stoke. |
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| Decision time in Little Stoke. John is on his road bike so had considered returning to the main road for the next mile or so, while we took the track. He came with us.😉 |
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| Track linking Little Stoke to North Stoke. |
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| North Stoke, where we continue until the tarmac runs out, and it becomes the Ridgeway to connect the to the back entrance to the golf club. |
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| arriving at The Springs Resort and Golf club. |
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| Tea on the terrace in sunshine. (they don't do cake, but we all brought a snack bar, since I knew this) |
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| Fantastic photo by John of Dave's legs and Steve's finger. 😂 |
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| The view from the terrace is not too shaby. |
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| Leaving North Stoke, Kim requested a photo of the Shetland ponies. |
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| Kim's photo. |
Now straight across the B4009 onto Whitehouse Road, to pass the barn. This dog was sooooo obedient!
Soon, straight over the A4074, with a slow gradual climb to Ipsden, passing the double bell tower Church.
At Ipsden X Roads, we allowed a family of cyclists to pass, and noticed that the Dad, is pulling the little bike along, attached to a rope. Mum and Dad both have panniers well packed, and another child of about 10 is on his own bike. There is a cheeky climb ahead, so we wondered how they would manage?
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| Family pass us, so we give them a head start. |
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| The Dad, pulling the small bike, had come to halt, but Mum and the young boy made it to the top. |
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| Back to Brazier Park juntion for the second time, to repeat a mile or so before we turn left to climb about 2 miles towards Woodcote on South Stoke Road. |
South Stoke Road climb, where Steve overtakes Kim and me. It's only about 5% but it does go on a bit!
As we come to the Woodcote sign, I usually carry on to Woodcote, but today my route took us off to the right, to try a new section. We chatted with a couple of cyclists who stopped for a breather, and who were cycling 100+ miles today back to Croydon, to end a 3 day tour. (suddenly felt pathetic!😂)
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| The Beech trees here turning green already. No signs of green earlier in Wyfold area. |
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| John very tentative on his skinny tyres on the shocking surface on Mill Lane. Steve soon passes. |
At the end of Mill Lane, the original plan was to drop into Bugs Bottom and up the steep Gravel Hill to Emmer Green, then a couple of miles back to the start. But we decided we had done enough hills, so passing Kidmore End Church, we retraced our route to the start.
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| Arriving back at the side of Kidmore End Church from the opposite direction from this morning. So, the planned 30 miles became 25, but we did climb a few hills, so who's counting! A beautiful day to be out, and we finished in 15degrees. Lovely to have Kim and Steve join us today, and glad you both enjoyed your alternative Easter Monday outing.  |