The Cycle Path
Cycle Log
Day 3 - Monday 21 June 2004
Uffington to Temple Grafton
In all senses a very long day! On White Horse Hill at 7 am missing the dawn by several hours but fit for the day ahead as the early mists began to lift to the north revealing the way ahead. Grateful for both Sue Clifford's long trek from Dorset to meet me at the White Horse and for the Baker family for putting me up...stories of local distinctiveness were added to the collection including the Blowing Stone sarsen and the left handed anomaly in Faringdon. Falling from the top of the hill in a swoop past the horse and Dragon Hill before heading to Uffington and the Oxford Clay vale with the sinuous Thames. This was the end of Chalk and everything that went with it like orchids and steep hills. To the north were the Cotswolds AONB but before that the NT's Coleshill Estate...Little Coxwell offered up Pudding Dock Lane an old bridleway that lay where I wanted to go although rough in parts. It offered three hares who ran with extra speed when they saw me. The lane ended in a footpath so I walked the bike on the concrete farm roads called footpaths until I could legally ride again. Arrived at the Thames and with difficulty handled the bike over a stile, crossed the wooden bridge and walked the Thames Path to William Morris's former home at Kelmscott. Impressive but shut. The rest of the village was hewn from the same Cotswold stone with the local stone slate fencing that makes this area unique. The village was deserted...as was the next one; the monocultural fields were empty too...only the sky was busy with military transport planes landing at RAF Brize Norton and a drifting buzzard. Past Filkins Jurassic ammonites appeared as trophies inset into walls...and Green Dragon House appeared too. The long slow drag up to the Barringtons would have been great for observing activity but only the hedgrows contained any with bramble, dogrose and elderflower dominating although the subtle smell of honeysuckle wafted my way too. Organic farming produced lots of flies from dung heeps but I eventually came across a farm worker...crop spraying... and managed to get out of the drift just in time. Barringtons pretty but pretty deserted too although the Fox Inn by the river Windrush was a pleasant spot to wait for my guest cyclists for the day...Neil and Veronica Aldridge. Their life is now the focus of an ITV reality programme so in between growing their own food, raising pigs and selling lettuces they have lots of time. Two bikes, two dogs and a pick up truck coincided with a thunder and hailstorm of some ferocity as we headed along the Rissington Ridge getting soaked and imagining the views. Thundering downscarp to Icomb and Eddington looking for a pub for lunch also created a disaster that haunted me for the next two days. After a fine lunch of local food served well in comfortable surroundings a puncture...not just a small one but a chunk of broken beer bottle. A large tear in a tyre is bad news but repairable...however, only successful when it works and this time it didn't so change the tube but the tubes turned out to have the wrong valves despite being in the right packet! Problem...only to be resolved by a trip to a bike shop...so off to Banbury via Chipping Norton. So the rest of the day was spent in Banbury Cycles with Gaz the mechanic anxiously reboring holes in the rims to fit the oversize valves. Fixed by 5.30 but the day had gone; so using the folding capacity to the full took a train to Wilmcote and cycled to the Blue Boar at Temple Grafton....meeting en route by accident Lucy Vincent from the Countryside Agency on her yellow motorcycle..matching my panniers! An evening of cheering on England in Shakespeare's homeland after a tough and long day.
