I did this route last Friday with a friend and decided to do it again today, as a Thursday ride. Gill was originally going to offer Thursday, but then injured her foot, by which time Sue, who normally does a Thursday ride, had committed to a Friday ride. (Life gets complicated!). I felt sorry for the regular Thursday riders, since their ride last week was cancelled due to rain, but it turns out they were mostly on holiday this week anyway. 😂
So, for this week only, we opened up the opportunity for riders to sign up for a second ride and this ride went ahead. Lovely to have Cathy join us for the first time in ages, and well done to Sue G who was a little nervous about taking on a few hills today. She finished on a high. 😇
Route link
We all enjoyed the long downhill on Aston Lane and further downhill to cross the Thames. The lock gates were closed, so we had to wait a few minutes to cross. Good excuse for my first photo.
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| Sue G, Cathy, Karen and Kate at Hambleden Lock |
We rode on Hambleden Road, by-passing the village on our way out, continuing through Skirmett, where we had to stop for a lorry reversing. Chance for another photo at this pretty cottage just beyond the pub.
(The Frog at Skirtmett has finally reopened as The Kings Cow, but on the pub sign is a steak. They are serving very locally sourced food including beef from Colsthorpe Farm along the valley. )
At the end of the valley road a little detour into Turville.... just because it's beautiful.
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| Enjoying the views in Turville. |
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| A little patch of poppies in the churchyard. |
We continued past the church, just for half a mile or so to the woodland area, before heading back. It was dark! The sky had turned dark too, but came to nothing. We discussed climbing the lane up to Turville Heath, but not today. (It's a long one, but doable if you just pace yourself).
A bit of doubling back now to the end of the valley road, with Sue leading us to the junction where we turned right to Frieth. I was actually struggling to keep up with her pace. 😂
On the hills, I knew that Cathy and Karen would be quicker, so said it was ok for them to go ahead, to go straight through the Xroads at Frieth, then wait just beyond the Xroad, as the road levels out. It turned out, they didn't have their listening ears on. 😕 Sue and Kate had understood, as the 3 of us waited for the others to turn around.
We were about to take a right turn, just beyond the X road, which is why I asked them to wait. Neither had the route. So what to do? Naturally I tried to call them both, but no signal. I thought never mind, they will realise we are not following, and turn back. 10 mins past. Still they hadn't come back. Eventually, Cathy called me. They had gone 2 miles, mostly downhill, so guess what? They now needed to come back up again.
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Waiting for Karen and Cathy to come back to this junction
where we turn right... not straight on to Marlow. |
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The view on the other side as we waited 25 mins.
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Full of apologies of course, we continued now on the potholed lanes to Rockwell end, where I had forewarned them of a steep down, then up, to a right turn .... and to WAIT! 😂 Which they did.
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The worst is now over and we look forward to the long
downhill on Pheasants Hill into Hambleden. |
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| It was chaos! A large group of Israeli tourists. |
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The 3 second timer on my camera. Oops Karen not looking, and Sue behind the flowers.
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The 5 second timer on my phone. Half of Cathy.
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| Still lots of the Israli tourists as we were getting ready to leave. |
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| Cosmos and Petunia on our way to the loo. |
A return now to the weir and to climb Aston Lane aka Flower Pot Hill.
Well done everyone. Just 20 miles, but took us all morning with stops in one form or another. I think we earned our cake.
