Steady Pedals

After a fantastic nights sleep in my ever so spacious but very light new tent, I found time to replan our route, avoiding the killer hill. The climbing couldn’t be totally avoided, I just spread it out into hopefully more manageable sections.

A light breakfast, in my case a bowl of overnight oats, and we set off. The plan was to try like Bilbo Baggins to have a second breakfast, we were both fixated on the idea of a bacon sandwich. The new route went via Didcot, we hoped though that a breakfast stop would come before then. Although not flat, the riding afforded some solendid views, especially from the ridge tops.

Little chocolate box villages came and went, but none with so much as a shop, let alone a cafe. Then it appeared we struck lucky, a sign for a community owned pub/cafe. Parking up expectantly outside, we could see activity in the garden. I presume it was the Landlady, she certainly knew the pub/cafe opening times and this wasn’t one of them ! Dejected on we went, finally hitting Didcot where we found a cafe that had great Google reviews and seats outside where we could guard the bikes. Result, well almost – it was Halal so everything but bacon ! I settled for beans on toast, which to my disgust was a small helping of beans on one slice if toast. Hardly full up, we moved off again, target a country pub for those elusive Ploughmen.

Again we were riding through lovely villages, but the expensive parked cars told the story of gentrified villages, hollowed out with no shops, pubs or schools. The ride so far had been full of little climbs, we had a couple more to go and then the climbing was pretty much done. It was getting hot and we were both ready for a cold drink and rest. Google maps showed a pub a little off our route after the final climb. Of course it turned out to be up a hill off our route, and when we got there it was no longer a pub, but a house !

Still another was shown a few miles further on, which didn’t require a detour. This time it was open, it didn’t look much from the front, but the beer garden looked like something from a high end design magazine. This wasn’t a spit and sawdust pub , two sweaty cyclists were definitely not the demographic they were aiming for ! Still they happily took our money ( lots of it) I had a glorified kebab, I can’t remember the description, but it probably talked about “…resting on artisan flatbreads” etc. Still I was impressed when they took our water bottles from the table to refill them. Though perhaps on refection, they wanted to keep us away from the more well heeled clientele.

The rest of the afternoon’s ride was pretty easy, apart from a little kick up at the end. Our campsite for the night was a ridiculous £6 each, but still came with great facilities. There was one pub nearby serving food, otherwise it was back into Newbury (up a hill)

Wishing to avoid any more culinary disasters, we made sure we got to the pub, well before the kitchen was due to close. Except it had…. “it’s quiz night, kitchen’s closed early” said the publican. We never did work out why unless the chef was going to double as quiz master. She must have seen the look on our faces, so she suggested we stayed and had a drink and ordered in pizzas. That seemed like a good plan, but then a few minutes later she was back saying the kitchen was open. So that was dinner sorted. Food and a few beers later we retired for the night.

The final day was a shortish 25 mile ride back to Reading and trains home. The threat of rain had us packing and leaving the campsite by 0730. Again the idea being a second bacon focussed breakfast en route. Unfortunately we were too early for any cafes on our route, so after a flat but sometimes bone shaking ride along country roads and canal towpaths, we rolled into Reading, still in search of porcine nourishment. After a short search we found it at that emporium of good food. Hurrah for Greggs – bacon roll and a tea £2.99 ! Satisfied we headed our separate ways home, tired but happy.

I now have a little bit of time to recover, before my rescheduled trip to the North