We headed off towards Lambourn and up an unbelievably steep hill, sorry David I don't know how high or how steep, all I can say is that it was as bad as the worst hill on day 1 of Pedal to Paris. Up to this point in all the training we have done I have only stopped once on a hill and I wasn't going to be defeated by this one. wrong!!! I made it about 1/3rd of the way up before ultra granny gear wasn't good enough, Sally gave up slightly before me and Tim carried on until about 2/3rds of the way up.
Then I thought, damn it I am getting back on, I did this but promptly ended up going back down the hill by mistake making funny noises which had Sally in fits and meant I had to climb some of the hill over again.
We foolishly asked for directions from this Lady in the centre of Lambourne who insisted on walking us through a secret short cut behind St Michael and all Angels Church, along the way she gave Sally her life story and a great big hug and a kiss as we departed.
Behind the church is this chantry chapel. After a little research I have discovered that on March 9th, 1501, King Henry VII granted a licence to John of Estbury to found a perpetual chantry and an almshouse for ten poor men and this is it.
We also passed a Royal British Legion Hall as we went up the hill out of Lambourn, so we thought we should take a photo of that too.
On now through a long valley towards Ashbury, there was a strong wind against us all the way and we were gradually climbing, and I must say as beautiful as it was this was pure agony for about 5 miles, but we had a brief stop to look at Ashdown House seen here in the distance across the field.
Eventually we arrived at this spectacular view, I believe overlooking Shrivenham, you can see some wind turbines in the distance too, I rather like them but some people hate them.
We then took a steep decent to the Rose and Crown Pub in Ashbury High Street, it was Tim's turn to pay so we were on short rations. (Only joking, we like to wind him up)
As we left the pub I commented to Sally that a pint of Cider certainly seems to make the cycling easier, and she said that it was more likely that we were now going down hill.
About another 10 miles through Shrivenham, Longcot, Shellingford and back to Sallys for tea and macaroons, Tim had to miss the tea as his poor dog needed to re-visit the vet after an operation, poor girl.
I must say that 24 hours later I can still feel this one in my legs, it was just short of 30 miles but it feels like more.
Oh yes and we passed a farm with lots of Tee Pee's in a field, I think this was around Shellingford, but can't be positive about that.
On this occasion(!!) it sounds that a pint was particularly well deserved. I have to admit that I can't get to the top of my hill yet without stopping about 200-300 yards from the top. The legs are OK, its just the ticker that feels like it is going explode!
ReplyDeleteI see that Tim and Sally have been strapping those poor sheep to their saddles again! At least Tim has stopped wearing his!
Well there's a sheep attached to mine too but I try to avoid being photographed with it.
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