Just an everyday shopping trip....

My mileage is well down in the last couple of months. Because of the lockdown restrictions I have not gone out on long day rides, due to not wanting to have to call out Husband if I got a puncture, or some other problem. Not that this has ever happened to me, except very near home, so my reasoning isn't really logical... However I have had some really lovely short rides, finding some routes I either didn't know about or had forgotten.

One lovely sunny day - there have been so many! - I decided to take a route along our local Wilts and Berks canal to go shopping in Wantage. The canal is being restored in places and is a lovely quiet route to walk or cycle. In the winter it's too muddy but at the moment it's perfect. The surface is reasonably good for my hybrid bike, though in dappled sunlight the tree roots can be hard to see. Before I start, here's an interesting thing; I realized when cycling along the Kennet and Avon canal a couple of years ago that I much prefer to cycle with a canal on my right - it feels slightly weird cycling with it on my left.

Back to the shopping trip. I got onto the tow path about 2 miles from home -

 It's so lovely at this time of year. Who would want to drive along a road when you can walk or cycle along here?

Now I'm approaching Grove after about two miles on the canal. A few years ago this was just a field with a footpath across, which I used to enjoy walking. You can see a new housing estate on the left; they have at least done a reasonable job of landscaping the area, putting in trees and good paths. I don't know whether the paths are designated for walkers only but no-one has yet objected to me cycling on them. This is also part of what was once Grove Airfield, an important WW2 military air base, hence the aeroplane on a stick - that curved thing in the distance. Apparently it's a De Havilland Venom! (now I know...). There are some excellent photos of it here.

Here I am in the middle of Wantage, but still roughly following the route of the old canal. It's only in recent years that I have discovered just how many quiet paths there are between the houses in Wantage. There are quiet short cuts everywhere. In theory most of them are not for cyclists but I always give way to pedestrians and nobody seems to object to a cyclist being on them. Here the canal is just a ditch -

Now through a housing estate -

And here I am, after about 5 miles, finally back on the road and nearly at Sainsbury's, and even this road is much, much quieter than normal, due to lockdown.

Then through to the market place, which would normally be full of cars, both parked and moving. It does seem very strange once you get here, where most of the shops are shut - quite dead. There are not just few cars but very few people -

My bike was the only one parked here in my usual spot outside Waitrose (I truly do get a bit miffed if someone else parks there....) which is strange; we all know there are more people cycling at the moment and even the usual bikes aren't here.

 Now I'm back on the canal path between the houses on my way home, with very full panniers -

Sneaking through a gap by the stile and back on to the old footpath near the aeroplane -

Now, after cycling round the edge of Grove Business Park, I'm heading across the old airfield. It was many years since I'd walked this path and I couldn't remember how rideable it was, but in my relaxed and exploratory mode I just thought - oh well, I can always turn round and go back.....

It turned out to be rideable all the way to this lane  at East Challow. The photo below is of the site of what used to be a country club, and where I believe Elder Son wasted some of his youth. When I first came across the derelict buildings some years ago, and didn't know of this fact, I snooped around and came out with a haul of several beer glasses (some used by him perhaps) and a very nice stainless steel bucket, which we still have! This was also where a friend showed me Poplar Balsam; some time later when passing a wood close to home I realized from the remembered smell in my nostrils that it was growing there too.

Now past the church at the lovely village of West Challow. There is a stream that flows past the church wherein I once dipped my feet on a very hot day, after a day's riding. Nothing like it....

And now back up the bridlepath to Childrey, and then a short distance on quiet back roads home.

How many people's shopping journeys are like that? Just had a thought - I wonder if Husband would let me use his Go-Pro to film it? If I could manage the technology.....

A bike ride on a cold day, and Coffeeneuring (or rather Teaneuring) #6

If you're coming across this post without having heard of coffeeneuring, then you can read about it here on the Chasing Mailboxes blog (a blog about cycling and running). But basically it's about riding your bike to 7 different places in about the same number of weeks. You can get your coffee (other drinks are allowed) at a cafe, or take/brew your own outside, which comes under the Coffee without Walls bit of the challenge. There are other rules, but not too many. Those taking part can post their rides to a Facebook group, either as they go or all in one post at the end of the challenge.

This post is about my sixth ride, so I have one more to go. I chose a theme this year, and that was to visit watery places...... ponds, rivers, and who knows what connection my last one will have to water! Watch this space.....

I do and try and pick days where the forecast is reasonable, but even so the rides have to fit in around other activities, such as paid sewing jobs. And getting Husband's tea. The forecast for this Sunday trip was sunny but cold,  about 7 degrees C, but combined with the wind chill factor it would be about 2 degrees. They say that for outdoor activities there's no such thing as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothing, so I put on -

On top

Merino wool base layer
Cotton shirt
Cotton jumper
Home made wool zip-up thing
Fleece lined Buff
Vulpine Primaloft cycling jacket (one of my few bits of  cycling-specific clothing, and well worth the expense)
Gloves (not my REALLY  wintery ones)

On the bottom

Thick cotton tights, under Altura Women's Cruisers (really pleased I bought these last winter)
Above tucked into cotton socks

The plan was to cycle to East Lockinge, about 7 miles away, to a very pretty part of the river where it forms a pond, by a public footpath. Then I would go on to Youngest Son's to pay a surprise visit and deliver some of the muffins I'd made in the morning.

For some reason, I always get in a muddle with the villages and roads on this side of Wantage, so had taken a map with me, just in case I got lost. After one wrong turn (I'm happy to take wrong turns when out cycling though!) I vaguely followed the river back the other way and found my spot. But for the second time in this coffeeneuring season, I arrived to find a dry river bed -

No water in the pond

As you can see there is water in the river beyond, but none here in the pond. There seems to be a blockage stopping the water getting into the pond, but according to a dog walker I chatted to, the real reason is lack of rainfall. He told me that the water levels here on the local estate are 10% of what they should be, and that households on this private water system have been asked to conserve water. Rather disappointing too is the fact that the pond has been fenced off - you used to be able to get down into it.

This was what I took with me to eat and drink -

Chocolate cranberry muffin

And this is where I most definitely thought -

"What this bike needs - is somewhere to put one's refreshments!"

A folding table to attach to the rack perhaps....... hmmmmm, food for thought!

A lovely place to walk, and drink tea.

Then it was on to Grove, a few miles away, to Youngest Son's, who was in, with his girlfriend, so I didn't have to leave the muffins hanging on the door handle. I stopped for a while, had a look at his new router, (I'm fascinated by tools!) then cycled home. By then it was getting dim so I needed my lights  - Busch and Muller dynamo, which came with the bike.  It's really useful to have the lights there all the time, and not to have to rely on batteries.

I couldn't believe how much traffic there was on this sunny Sunday -

"Why aren't people out on bikes?" I asked myself!!!

I frequently ask myself this. I always feel like shouting to drivers -

"It's great on a bike! Try it, you might find you like it!"

This ride was about 18 miles. Another cycling blogger writes here about the delights of one particular ride she had. Some rides are undoubtedly more enjoyable than others, and this one was one of those.  As I said to Husband recently on my return home from a shopping trip by bike - "I LOVE cycling!" But even when I've got hungry, tired, wet, lost or it's got worryingly dim and I haven't had lights, I can honestly say -

"Even a bad ride's a good one!"

Lizzie