Marlow to Checkendon and back on a bike

Highs and Hawthorns - 74 km

 

Do you remember the Spring of 2011?

This will be the mantra over the coming years.  Just like we've been saying “do you remember the Summer of ’76?" Today was yet another bright cloudless day and a one to savour on the bike. After a coffee at the recently refurbished Burgers in Marlow we headed off into the Chilterns. Whichever way you leave Town you hit a hill and, in this case, it was the fairly benign ascent up Chalkpit lane, heading up towards Frieth. This served as a gentle warm up for the Chiltern Hills that we would undoubtedly encounter very soon. We passed through the village of Fingest and then up the very steep long hill behind Turville. A couple in the group are very fast climbers and have time to read a paper when they get to the top! On this occasion they were attacked at the top by black bugs, serves them right! I sit somewhere in the middle puffing and plodding my way up.  At the top we re-formed and carried on through the lovely forested Turville Heath area towards Northend and Christmas Common. This is as high as you get around here and, after Cookley Green, there is a long descent where you can easily hit 50kph. The views to the right over the plain towards Oxford are superb. Mind you, we concentrated more on the potholes than distant views of the dreaming spires or Didcot Power Station.  The roads were so quiet, it reminded me of cycling in France. Aaah the blossom and scent of the Hawthorn as we pedal along. The going was nice and easy for about 10km but then there was pay-back! Another tough uphill to tackle. At least we knew that this time there was a pub at the top where lunch beckoned. Sitting in the garden with a pint at The Four Horseshoes in Checkendon isn’t a bad way to spend lunchtime and recover. Noisy Rooks and a cool wind couldn’t detract from my sausage baguette and the emergency provisions that TW had packed in by bike bag. And, as we were at the top of the hill, we knew it was pretty much downhill from here all the way to Henley.

Suitably refreshed, but slightly chilled, we trundled off down Hookend Lane towards Kidmore End, Sonning Common and Crowsley before we hit our only real traffic of the day in Henley. The multiple traffic lights slowed the motors down in Town but we soon left them  behind when we crossed the Thames bridge and took a left up Remenham Lane. Then it was over the weir at Mill End and onwards to Hambleden and our last climb, out of the village and up Pheasants Hill to the Frieth Road. Now it really was all downhill to home.

Incredibly it was still warm and sunny, time to sit out in the garden and read a book (about cycling). Tough this retirement lark!  Am sure we are going to pay for this good weather later in the year but we’ll worry about that when it happens.  “Remember the Spring of 2011?”