Easter Monday and we stay down in the Wiltshire/Berkshire area so we can do more cycling! We stay with friends Julie and Andy who claim to live in a pink house. As you can see from this photo, my top is pink, Stuart's top is pink, the house is not pink. (Stuart is trying out a new look, he's bored of greys and browns)
Just before we start our ride we stop at a garden centre to catch up with more friends Jon and Rachel for a coffee. We couldn't understand why the cafe was so busy until we went outside and found Easter bunnies, chicks and lambs for the kids to go crazy over (and yes I did queue up so that I could pet the bunny!)
Today the weather forecast is great, I lose my waterproof jacket and Stuart is down to his shirt sleeves. We have decided to join the route at Aldermarston on the canal tow path, which is a great point to start the ride. Neither of us can remember why we know the name Aldermarston, but google soon sorts that out, and provides us with the answer that Aldermarston is the site of anti-nuclear protest marches in the 50s and 60s.
The sun is out and once again the daffodils are magnificent. I have missed the last 6 UK Springs and have been looking forward to seeing the daffodils again. They haven't disappointed.
Incredibly the temperature rises to above 20 deg C!
It's time to shed a few more layers. Fortunately, when Stuart rides with me he takes his touring bike, which means he carries a handy pannier, which can then be used for spare clothes- to add or take away.
This reminds me of a text exchange I had with Stuart last week when I was heading into London on the train. (We won't go into why I was being high maintenance!)
This made me burst out laughing on the train!
Another handy feature of the pannier is the ability to load it with snacks!
Although today, to be fair I could have made it through to the pub lunch, which was quite substantial. I have the steak and tanglefoot pie, Stuart has the healthy salad. No pie comments please.
Interesting features of today's ride are an old Roman city wall at Silchester (definitions of old here in the UK is nearly 2000 years!), a few highland cows and a tank driven by a learner driver, which prompted evasive action from us when it started reversing back up the road!
My Strava failed to record properly today (it stopped recording at the pub, maybe it was trying to tell me something) so I had to borrow a map of the route from Stuart. You can see at the South west corner of the circle is a fairly major detour as we bombed down a hill, realised we had missed the turn, decided against riding on the busy A339 and struggled back up the hill again.
When we finally circle back to the canal towpath we see a sign which says we only have 2 miles left to ride.
There was a lovely pub at the "2 miles to go" point, so we stopped for a quick drink. Stuart had his usually pot of Earl Grey and I accidentally ordered a pimms and lemonade! Well, it did feel like summer today!
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