A little bit of wild camping in the Windrush Valley, Day 1

 It must have been back in 2014 when I started reading books about touring by bicycle. I have done several multi-day trips since then, staying in B and Bs, but I have always dreamed of cycling and camping. Over the last few years I have been collecting equipment, and this year finally bought a tent, and a camping quilt. I had some trial runs in the garden, trying to get the warmth and the comfort sorted out, and then when the forecast looked good last week, there really was no reason to put it off any longer!! It took me two days to plan where I was going and get everything together, fitting it in with  my usual household and wifely tasks. I seem to remember that Josie Dew, one of my cycling heros, when she was going off on one of her long trips, at the last minute thought she'd better wash the kitchen floor before leaving. I'm a bit like that....

I decided to head for the Windrush Valley, which I have cycled through before, and fancied revisiting, and it's not too far away. I was also partly inspired by a book I've been reading by Mollie Harris, who played the character of Martha Woodford in The Archers on Radio 4 years ago. I used to be a regular listener, as my parents were before me, but no longer am since I realized it was a bit of a vehicle for BBC propaganda. In fact I used to listen to Radio 4 all day long if I was at home, but not any more. Anyway, Mollie had worked her way from the source of the Windrush near Taddington in Gloucestershire , to where it flows into the Thames about 30 miles later, with delightful descriptions of her journey. 

From the book "Where the Windrush Flows", by Mollie Harris, illustrated by Gary Woodley

The forecast was for quite high temperatures on the first day, and some rain, possibly thunderstorms, on the second. I planned the route so that I could camp for two nights if I felt like it, or just one if I didn't! 

Day 1: Wednesday, 30th July, from home in south west Oxfordshire to Sherborn in Gloucestershire

ROUTE:  Stanford-in-the-Vale (of Pam Ayres' fame - she was born and bred there), Buckland, Bampton, Brize Norton (popular with plane spotters), Swinbrook, Widford, Burford, Upton, Little Barrington, Windrush, then Sherborn.

I did not use my Garmin this time. I have read lately about the huge number of satellites there are in the sky. Obviously a Garmin uses satellites, and although one person stopping using theirs might not make much difference, I think as a matter of principal that, having read what I have, I should not use it any more. I do miss it - it's incredibly useful in many ways, but we all managed without them once, and I, especially as one who loves maps, can manage without it again. And it's one less thing to think about, or take a charger for! If you want to read about satellites, try here - INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY ASSOCIATION vs. FCC AND SPACEX

So, I had my OS map, but I also like to have a list of the places I'm going through in front of me, so I made a route list. Then -  "What this bike needs - is somewhere to attach my route list...." Last year's fell off my bike after a few miles, never to be seen again, so as I would not be needing my sticking-out Garmin holder, I made this route list holder out of a sign that I had found at the roadside, and attached it to it - 

Husband's bike wheel hanging up above...

WEATHER: Hot!!

WEARING: Vest top, cotton shirt, old Craghopper trousers cut off below the knee, socks, Hi-Tec shoes. Rab windproof jacket, removed very soon.

COMMENTS:  I set off about 7.30, having eaten just some yogurt and a few nuts, and got to Bampton Garden Centre, about 13 miles away, just after 9. Here I had planned to have breakfast. It was already pretty hot by the time I got there. Their once small café is now much enlarged and more of a restaurant; breakfast was expensive compared to many places - £12.95, but I have to say it was very good. Coffee was not good in my opinion, and an absolute rip-off at £3.70!!! I couldn't manage the toast but wasn't going to leave it behind after paying all that so wrapped it up in napkins, along with the three packets of butter, and took it with me.

The route so far was familiar to me, and it wasn't until I had left Brize Norton a bit further on that I really felt as if I was "on holiday". Heading north-west out of Brize I was amazed to see a huge development of unbelievably ugly new houses on my left, opposite some much older ones. They looked as if they had just been plonked in a field. I couldn't believe this had been allowed, particularly in the Cotswolds. I wish I'd stopped to take a photo. I find I dislike most modern housing estates. It doesn't seem to matter what area of the country they are in, they all look the same. One thing I hate about them is the lack of front gardens, which to me give a welcoming look. They seem to be just places where people are home in the evening and at weekends, but no-one is in all day. 

I crossed over the A40, and then over a bridge for a brief look at the river Windrush at Swinbrook - so inviting! As in many other spots along my route, I couldn't get near enough to it to touch the cold water. A couple sat outside the pub opposite. I happen to know (I'll tell you how tomorrow) that this place gets very busy at the weekends.

I think the next stop, along the wonderfully quiet NCN Route 57, was the most delightful part of the day. I had planned this ride not to be too long, precisely so that I could do what I now did, and explore a turning off my route. (Note: I bought the camera secondhand in a charity shop and I have not got round to altering the date that was set on it!) Once again I crossed a bridge over the river -

The river at Widford

and then saw a sign across the road  to a footpath, which led to an amazing tiny church in the middle of a field. It is St Oswald's. I just had to go and have a look - 

I spent ages looking round inside and outside the church, and reading a little of its history - 

Imagine the number of feet that made those indentations!

Boxed in pews on both sides, and a crooked pulpit

It had been abandoned for a period and used for agricultural purposes, but had been restored and there are now services there. Mollie Harris wrote - 

"In the fourteenth century there was a small community of thirteen houses there, clinging close to the church. Was it the Black Death that struck this lovely place, leaving only the church, the mill and the manor and manor farm buildings, and a shepherd's cottage in a field, and the humps and the hillocks and the cold January wind whistling through the brown grasses?"

I pushed my bike further along the footpath across the field towards the river, and met a family I had spoken to earlier. One of their daughters called out to me - 

"We couldn't find the stream!" 

The father explained that they had got down to the river but couldn't get very close as it was muddy, and there was barbed wire across. I could see on the map that you should be able to get down to it, so I carried on and had a look. Where the family had looked was where cattle obviously go down to the water, and the barbed wire was to stop them going too far in presumably. I looked round and found a stile where, if you forced your way through overgrown trees you could get to the river, but it was deep straight from the bank and no good for dipping my hot feet in. After a call of nature in the same spot the cattle obviously used, and a text to Husband, I pushed my bike out of the field and cycled on.

Next stop was the big church at Burford, and I went looking for a tap to fill my bottles. I reckon that 75% of churches I have visited have an outside, or even an inside, tap, but I couldn't see one outside and there were so many people around that I didn't fancy going in to look for one. Burford has a very steep and very typically Cotswoldy high street, and was heaving with people, as it always is in the summer, and I couldn't wait to get out of it!  

This is the third trip over the last few years that I have made in very hot weather, and as before I found myself constantly trying to keep cool, and to find places to refill my water bottles. As well as drinking the water, I trickled it over myself to keep cool. On a later occasion, I would find myself laughing at this....more of that tomorrow! No tap further on at the church in Little Barrington either. I cycled on and sat in some shade where I had refreshments - Baby Bel cheeses. I didn't bring a lot of food with me, purely because I was quite heavily loaded and hadn't got room for it.  I did have nuts and sultanas, and a snack bar, but I should have got food at Burford but because it was so busy I didn't want to stop. I knew there was a shop/cafe at Sherborn, and had also been fairly sure that I'd find something in the hedgerows to forage - apples, early blackberries, plums, damsons - but I hadn't found anything. However, it was so hot that I didn't really get hungry. A young mother passed me several times, as she went up and down the road, pushing her baby boy,  perhaps trying - unsuccessfully! - to get him to go to sleep. He didn't mind staring back at me from his pushchair! I wonder what was going through his little head..."Who's that funny woman?" perhaps.

Incidentally, this is a part of the country where you can see miles and miles of dry stone walls, including this new one (with the river tantalisingly me just down below in estate grounds.) I am always amazed at how they are built -

I finally found somewhere to cool my feet, - oh what bliss! - a stream at Little Barrington -

Foot washing done for the day...

Mollie Harris wrote - 

"In the green hollow a small spring flows out of the hillside and eventually over a field and into the Windrush. It was in that hollow, during the war, I used to gather the watercress which grew in great abundance there."

It's still growing, though not in great abundance.

Once again I explored a tiny steep and narrow lane which went down to the river, and which joins the D'Arcy Dalton Way, to which I will add a link to a video by one of my two favourite You Tubers, Sandy Jack, aka Wiltshire Man, who lives not far from me in Swindon. The other one is Susanna Thornton, who tours on a Brompton, and who has inspired me so much.  They are both an absolute delight to watch!

Still on my quest for water, just over the river towards Great Barrington I asked at a pub - The Fox at Barrington - for some. They were very welcoming to this hot and sweaty cyclist (a contrast to another pub - more of that tomorrow) and filled both my bottles with iced water. 

And now to the village of  Windrush, a little further along the river. It was only after I'd been here a few minutes that I realized I'd stopped here in 2016, on my first ever bike tour. I was on my elderly Trek at the time, and here it is loaded up, outside the church - 

I remember eating lunch there, thinking that although I wasn't really hungry and didn't want what I was eating, I ought to be re-fuelling. I have learnt not to do that now. I eat when hungry. Old Lady Trek is still with me, as my faithful shopping bike. This time I was on my Koga, and here it is loaded up outside the church, near that same bench -

Here there was a tap just inside the church gate, and I loaded up with water, this time filling my two drinking bottles, a third bottle, and the Platypus 2 litre water container (hanging on the side of the bike) to which I can attach a Bottle Shower. The night before I had cut holes in the reinforced area at the top of the Platypus, so that I could hang it up, but had accidentally cut into the water container itself, meaning that it leaked.... However, clever Husband managed to stop the leak with duct tape (see the orange bits on the top of the bottle?) so I was still able to use it. 

I cycled on to the last of these beautiful honey coloured stone Cotswold villages, for my day, Sherborn, where I knew there was a shop, although I had already suspected it would be shut by the time I got there - about 4 o'clock - and it was. I have to admit I was quite tired by now; I had quite a heavy load, plus it had been very hot, and while the journey hadn't been overly hilly (or even all that long) the hills there had been were made worse by the heat and my load. Actually I don't think I did too badly considering these two things. The last hill, on the way up to where I knew there was a good chance of somewhere to camp was a killer though, and I just had to push and rest, push and rest...

As I said, I had hoped to forage some fruit on my journey, but hadn't found any all day long - no early blackberries, no plums, damsons or apples, so when I turned onto a bridlepath I was overjoyed to see an apple tree, and picked two. They were ripe as well! The tree was in the garden of two empty farm cottages, and I very nearly camped there as it looked so nice, but it was evident that work was being done on them and I didn't want to be discovered in the morning by workmen., though perhaps they wouldn't have objected to this not-in-the-first-flush-of-youth lady camping there. 

 

Would have been a good camping spot. 

I went on down the bridlepath, heading towards the river where Husband had suggested there might be a good spot to camp (he'd looked at google earth) but in the end I decided to stay in a field I came to. The grass had been cut, and cleared, so I didn't think any farmer was likely to appear. I was by a large oak tree and almost out of sight of the public paths that ran nearby. And now came the challenge of pitching the tent somewhere other than our garden! I actually did it fairly easily, but then realized that there were lots of ants right by the entrance, and decided I'd have to move it. The tent is free standing so I could just pick it up, take up the footprint and move that, then fasten down the tent again. By the time I'd done that  my bare legs had been badly bitten by the ants, and scratched by thistles. I had picked this spot partly because there were logs to sit on, but when I got out my Trangia Burner and made coffee, I couldn't sit down and relax as I had to keep moving around and stamping my feet to stop the ants crawling up my legs. With my coffee I had one of the apples, a snack bar and some nuts and raisins. The toast that I had saved from breakfast had gone rock hard and the butter rancid!!

Helm Compact 1 tent

Coffee making area

Washing area!

I mentioned at the beginning that I had bought a camping quilt. I hate being enclosed in a sleeping bag - I feel trapped - so a quilt seemed like the answer. This is it - Mountain Equipment Helium Quilt. I looked at loads of camping quilts, and watched You tube videos reviewing them. I actually sent off for an Alpkit one to start with, and when it came, it seemed just what I wanted, but I could feel something on my hands after handling it, so sent it back and got the ME one instead. However, the majority of camping quilts and sleeping bags are, of course, synthetic, and I find myself thinking -

"Why am I sleeping under something synthetic when I wouldn't dream of doing so in bed?"

Remember nylon sheets in the 1960s? I do, and they were awful! When my family and I went on holiday, and got to whatever B and B we were staying in, the first thing we did when we got in the bedroom was look to see whether the sheets were nylon or cotton. (And in the days when it was just me and my sister, I always bagged the bed by the window.)

Of course the reason for using synthetics is that they are lightweight. But I had to do something to improve matters, even if it meant carrying extra weight, so I made a cotton cover for the top 10" or so of the quilt (and carefully sewed, very lightly, tiny patches of cotton to the stitching on the quilt, with tiny poppers attached to them, to fasten it to) so at least my face would not have something synthetic next to it. I also made myself some nice big cotton pyjamas (from a duvet cover - the same material I used for the cover), the idea being that I'd be covered in cotton. When I practised at home I also encased my mat in an old cotton sleeping bag liner (and even tucked a wool blanket inside that - ! - which was a wonderful combination!) but unfortunately that would just have added too much weight to my load. I  took the pyjama bottoms with me but I wore a cotton shirt in bed, as that doubled up as daywear. Tell me I'm nuts if you like...

I have to confess to being very curious as to how people keep themselves clean when wild camping. Some of it is just common sense really, but it's helpful to know how other people go about it. This video was useful - Hygiene in the Field. And also Ray Jardine has some good ideas in his book Beyond Backpacking. Let's face it, cycling - especially in weather this hot - is a sweaty business, and I for one don't like to remain sweaty (at least not in certain areas!) when going to bed, even if that's only in a tent. And how do you do any necessary washing without being seen... ? Well, I managed it, very quickly, with the help of the bottle shower, which I didn't have strung up high as you can see, but nevertheless it did the job! For the record, I had about 4 litres of water when I arrived at my camp spot, for drinking and washing, which was just about enough.

And so to bed.....but before I settled down for the night in the tent I spoke to Husband on the phone; from my description he knew exactly where I was - in which field and by which tree!! 

Tomorrow - ever heard of a call of shame?

MILES: 29

Bike ride into the Cotswolds

This was last Friday, a lovely day weather wise - indeed all last week was lovely and I definitely wanted to get out for a decent ride while the weather was still good.

First this: The other day Husband made me watch ("Have you got two minutes?" is his favourite phrase...) a video on YouTube of Michael MacIntyre explaining how long it takes to get out the door with young children. It is SO accurate and very funny (but don't let that put you off having children!) and I couldn't help but be reminded of it when I was getting ready to go out for this ride. Going out on a bike takes longer to get ready for than going out in a car.There are so many things to think about - food to take, what coat/s to wear, which shoes to wear (different in winter and summer for me), have I got my phone (I'm not a mobile phone person and so it doesn't matter usually but I do like to have it on bike rides), have I got my two water bottles which I put in the fridge earlier, have I got my Garmin, which panniers shall I put what in, have I got my trouser legs sorted out......... Having said all that, it's definitely worth it!

Whenever I read other people's accounts of bike trips I am always interested in what they wore and what they ate (read my hero Josie Dew's books! she eats a massive amount!) as well as what bike they've got, so here is precisely that. The forecast was for chilly and foggy first, then warm and sunny later, so this was what I started out wearing.

[My gear - I only have a few bits of specifically cycling gear. I am trying to build up a bit more of a collection. It's the colder weather that's more of a problem. Jeans for instance, are OK for my usual 5 1/2 mile ride into town for shopping but not so comfortable, or warm enough, for longer rides. Hopefully this autumn I will be able to buy some more cycling specific legwear].

On top:

Baselayer of merino wool, long sleeved (Vulpine, about £35 I think) bought in sale last year
Cotton jumper (£1 in charity shop)
Softshell jacket (bought in one of Aldi's special cycling clothing sales this year, £20 - more on Aldi clothing in a future post)
Dare2b very lightweight windproof (Halford's, £25 down from £30. More on that in future post too).
Bontrager Profila Race Windshell Gloves (about £30 I think, from local bike shop, pretty pleased with these though have not tried them out in REALLY cold weather)
     

Bottom half (don't laugh): 

Craghopper's zip off trousers (brilliant buy from charity shop, new, £6.75,                                             very comfortable for cycling in).

Vulpine padded merino boyshort (£45 this year, never thought I'd be comfortable in "padding" but these are very comfy and fit well. It was a toss up at the time between these and some Corinne Dennis ones (which I'd still like to try).

Merrell Bare Access Arc shoes (bought in sale in Blacks last year, about half price I think, £35ish, very comfortable).

Short cotton socks (Sainsbury's if you must know, £2 for three pairs!)

Home made trouser straps made from leftovers of Vulpine musette bag (see this post on converting a musette bag to a bar bag)

This was the food I took: 

Cheese (in the foil)

Fruit and nut mix

Two apples

Nairns cheesey oatcakes

Snicker's bar (my chocolate fix, but with nuts in so more filling, to possibly prevent me buying cake later)

A tuna meal thing (pictured later on)

And two bottles of water

I normally eat sandwiches in the middle of the day but I find that they sit too heavily in my stomach on bike rides so I don't take them. But I'm still working on this subject - would different bread or different fillings (I usually have cheese) be better I wonder?

I always prefer to set off soon after breakfast, but as I had had stuff to do earlier I didn't set off until 10.45, and I think that this late start, despite having had coffee and a biscuit since then, and a handful of fruit and nuts, and some water, was the cause of my having to stop after a mere 4 miles, as I was already lacking in energy. This seems to happen to me sometimes even when I have eaten recently. When I stopped to cross the A420 (horrible!!) near Faringdon,  I ate and drank again and was then OK. In Faringdon I noticed that one of the charity shops had bikes outside so couldn't resist going to have a look. One was a bit pricey at £40 I thought, and oddly not all of them were for sale.

I considered buying this for use on the journey - could I carry it on the bike? Or should I just continue my usual practice of going behind a hedge? Hedges won the day. Simpler, and less weight on the bike.

I then left Faringdon and cycled out on the Clanfield road, turning left towards Langford but stopped for lunch not far from Grafton. The sun had come out soon after I left home so I had by now removed the two coats. This is my bike; it's about 18 years old, steel, not the original handlebars - replaced the beautiful rather swept back ones for Thorn Comfort bars which I am very pleased with. 

This is the tuna thing I mentioned in my food list. This one is actually from Lidl, and cost £1.50, but I first discovered this sort of thing when I bought a John West version - normal price in Sainsbury's or Waitrose £2 (my two local supermarkets) but you can sometimes get them two for £3. They are very tasty, the ingredients are fairly wholesome and they are not stodgy. I really like them for eating on bike rides. They seem to give me the necessary calories without being stodgy. They come with a plastic fork (which I take home and save in my tub of "things that might come in useful one day"). Husband likes these meals for paragliding (there, that's given away his hobby...).

My next stop was where I was aiming for - the Cotswold Woollen Weavers at Filkins. I've been here before but knew I'd enjoy another visit. And they've got the all-important-to-cyclists cafe. If you like wool - and this is Wool Week! - this is a lovely place to visit, if only just to eye up lots of wool blankets, throws, Baavets, and racks and racks of beautiful clothing. They have a museum too and generally lots of stuff to do with sheep in the Cotswolds. There are also bargains to be had in the shape of bags of offcuts, ends of rolls, and some fantastic HUGE bags of buttons, of the sort you'd put on woolly clothing, for £5 and £8. I didn't buy any of these as I have so many buttons in boxes and tins and more boxes.....

Wool duvets are definitely warmer than down ones (which was what we had before we got our wool one). Best duvet we've ever had, and the only one where we don't need extra layers on top (our bedrooms are unheated. I always say this makes for hardy children). (Our duvet didn't come from here though.) I think their only disadvantage is that they are very heavy to lift so changing the cover, or putting them outside to air, is tricky if you are a weak and feeble woman.....(Shakespeare I believe, another Elizabeth speaking).

Lovely cushions.

Shelves full of blankets!

Bargains to be had.

This is the garden where I sat and had my pot of tea (I did resist the cake, but only because it was too soon after lunch...). A forager's paradise! The three apple trees were loaded and I picked some for the journey home (I already had some as you know but I do like to sample different varieties). I wondered if they were all going to go to waste, but then spotted a box of giveaways, so that was good. I do wonder why anyone actually buys apples at this time of year when there are so many to be had for free if only you look.

Filkins isn't far from RAF Brize Norton and I saw Hercules aeroplanes circling round overhead and very low about every 10 minutes, and some other white ones (husband says Boeings of some sort. Is he right?). Practising I believe. Must take quite a lot of practice to fly one of those.....

This is a place called Shire Gate, which is self explanatory when you see that the gate (not in the picture) parallel to the road must once have been meant to go across the road to the white gatepost. Obviously the locals from each county once wanted to keep each other out. Or at least to make them have to open a gate to get in to their neighbouring county. Fortunately it was open for this Oxfordshire-but-born-in-Hampshire lass to get in to Gloucestershire. And here I ate apple in Oxfordshire (to the right) and cheese in Gloucestershire (to the left) and the latter benefitted from the apple core from the Filkins (Oxfordshire) garden, which I chucked in the hedge without finishing it as it wasn't as nice as the ones I had brought with me.

I then cycled on towards Eastleach and then to Southrop (stopped to eat half the Snickers bar) thinking I would take a slightly different route back to Faringdon, but in the end I went back the same way as time was getting on and I know what I'm like - I go too far and then realize that actually I have got a long way to go to get home before dark... Especially on a day like today when the weather was about as perfect as it could be for cycling and the temptation is to just ride on and on.

I stopped for a rest, and more food and water, at Grafton, on a bench, in the shade, as I had actually got quite hot being in the sun all day, despite it being October. A postman emptying the nearby postbox said "You're sat in the shade!" as if I shouldn't be. I said "Yes but I've been in the sun all day!" That seemed to satisfy him.

On a slightly different note, in my opinion the Cotswold villages are extremely pretty, full of small cottages that I look at and think "Ooh I could happily live in that!" but...... actually I wouldn't like it at all because to be honest a lot of these villages seem dead, lifeless. If there is life it's well hidden. One of the joys of cycling (and walking) to me is getting chatting to people and I saw no-one today to have that spur of the moment sort of chat with. On with the journey home..........

This is the bridge over the Thames at Radcot. There's a dog in the river which jumped in to chase ducks. He wasn't successful.

And here is the last picture, which I knew you'd love to see which is why I saved it till last.

In the car park adjoining the campsite. Picturesque isn't it?

"On the way back" I had an earworm, which was from the song Day Trip to Bangor by Debbie Cook (I had to google to find out who wrote it but one should give credit where credit's due)

   "But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider

     Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went around."

I was annoyed with myself for not having asked in the cafe if they would fill up my water bottle, so after slogging up the hill into Faringdon I had to pay a whole POUND for a 500ML bottle of water there. I got home before dark, despite it taking me 5 MINUTES to get back across the A420. Rush hour. 

My trip was about 38 miles - a good length for a day, not too long, but long enough. (And I can't get the font to go back to the right size and now I've got the earworm again.)

My next post will probably be about the wool jumper I have chopped down the front to make a zip up mid-layer for future colder bike rides.

Hope you enjoyed this and that you too have got the earworm. Let me know.

Lizzie