John is leading a club ride next Sunday starting from Petersfield, and wanted to check out some new lanes and cafe stops ahead of route planning. I took my ebike, and he used his road bike.
We left East Meon on a different road to usual, passing the church with the bells ringing, soon turning left into Park Road, a pretty valley road, but going uphill peaking around 11%.
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| leaving East Meon on Park Road |
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| looking back. The climb not yet getting going. |
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| the landscape everywhere parched. Several weeks of no rain.😔 |
As the climb levelled out, this house with a pond on the left, and soon some haybales on the right.
Eventually all downhill to cross over the A272 Winchester Road, to start the next climb to High Cross Lane. Most of the gradient wasn't too bad, she says pressing the button. We used a road called Basing Dean, and passed some gates with a plaque Basing Park, and after about 6.5 miles , we arrived a gravel track to our first cafe stop at around 10.45, The Old Dairy, on Hempland Lane
(John had been here 2 weeks ago, and didn't find it since a large lorry was hiding it. 😂 )
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| The entrance is at the back of the building. Outside seating too, but basically a hot car park area! |
We went inside to order, which was upstairs, and a long Q of cyclists ON the stairs from Fareham Cycling club. Bad timing! There must have been about 20 already here and more and more kept arriving. It was chaos and basically the young girls in the cafe didn't cope well.... at all.
We decided to sit inside upstairs at Table 9 but when John ordered he wasn't asked where he was sitting. I then went to tell them that we were at table 9, and they seemed "not bothered". I asked how they would know who the order was for? "Don't know" was the reply.
They did find us, but only because I was watching them. My teapot had a teabag but no water. John's coffee was wrong. His cake arrived, but not my muffin. What a shambles. I finally chased up my muffin, which was delivered. It was so hard I couldn't get the fork in it! I swapped it for the last piece of flapjack. Needless to say, we wont be back there. A cycling club turning up with 30 members was not fair on anyone. Not the customers or the staff. Very selfish and thoughtless of them.
We now cross over the A32 heading for West Tisted, undulating up and down heading next to West Meon.
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| Somewhere out there. A job for tomorrow? |
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| A little further and another job for tomorrow. No rain forecast so no rush! |
A fast downhill as we dropped into West Meon, and some pretty cottages at the junction.
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| West Meon |
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| West Meon. |
Back across the A32, avoiding several motorbikes out today, and soon our climb began on Old Winchester Lane. We had only ever come down this before, years ago, and got in the middle of hounds and horses on a hunt!
A slow burner of a hill, not too steep mostly, but long.
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| here he comes part way up, on Old Winchester Hill |
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| And it continues. |
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| opposite looking towards Isle of Wight. |
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| Contemplating their next flight |
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| Along the top of Winchester Hill looking down to Coombe |
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| John catching me up after his photo stop. |
A massive downhill now to Clanfield, and with a bit of traffic on this road now, before we joined a quiet Petersfield Lane to join a cyclepath alongside the A3 (!), to go under it and the entrance to Queen Elizabeth Park. Our second recce cafe for a light lunch. I have to say, not keen on the approach, but the cafe was ok. We just had a pasty (Indian Veggie)
After a half mile or so of retracing our route, a nice big downhill into Chalton, and where we missed a left turn (I noticed it, but not on John's Garmin). It wasn't until about a mile later, when he wanted to go left and my Garmin wanted to go straight on, that we realised we had gone wrong. Backtracking to a junction which had a NC route number on post, so we knew it was right. It was called New Barn Lane. A very pretty shady lane connecting to Buriton.
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| New Barn Lane. |
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| Junction where we dropped into Buriton. (this pub does coffee but opens at noon, so not necessarily any good for us) |
A wiggle over the A3 now, and back onto very quiet lanes all the way back to East Meon, on another approach we had not done before.
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| East Meon |
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| Junction of Frogmore Lane, East Meon. (I have a mark on my camera lens it seems 😡) |
Nice route, just a shame the landscape is not terribly inspiring at the moment. John now has to come up with a cunning plan for his route for next week with his new found knowledge... or is he more confused? 😃
