Out to Priscilla’s Kitchen, Lost Pubs and Thatch
Lunch at Priscilla’s Kitchen in East Garston is always an attractive prospect: great food, home made and served by people who care that customers enjoy what they eat. This was to prove a beautiful ride with many very attractive lanes, some of which were new to me. For photos to illustrate the journey I chose two themes: lost pubs and thatched roofs.
This was a ride of just over 200 km to and from West London, 96 km from Reading station and back.
Returning to a failed ride
I prefer uneventful rides. Depending on how I feel, I choose rides that are just within, or just at the limits of, my perceived capabilities. Back in May 2022 I entered the Audax Dinton 100 starting from Dinton Pastures, just outside Reading. I decided to ride this as an ECE - extended calendar event - riding about 50 km from home to the start and 50 km back home afterwards. About 45 km from home I shipped the chain changing up from the small chain ring; it became completely stuck between the small chain ring and the frame and I had to abandon.
The Old … Changing face of the countryside
Setting out to ride from West London to Great Milton outside Oxford and back via Wallingford, a familiar route, I set my focus on houses and cottages with names beginning “The Old…” These provide evidence, if further evidence is needed, of the vast changes in the countryside from the 1800s and early 1900s. Gone are many village schools, vicarages and other buildings linked to thriving working communities.
Rail Strike - 2x100 km Focus on Two Villages
Thursday 20 July was a rail strike day. Although I’ve completed many 200 km rides without problems, I always like to know that I could get rescued to a rail station. I decided to ride a figure of eight from West London, first west then roughly north-west, never too far from home. My focus for the day was to take photos of two villages and to sample two cafes I’d noticed on previous rides. This 200 km ride would make two enjoyable 100 km rides, easily accessible from the Elizabeth Line.
200 km Anywhere - Mind, Body, Age
As one of the first two hundred to respond to an email from Rouleur, I was one of those fortunate enough to secure a place at the launch party for Issue 1117 of the Rouleur Cycling Journal. Issue 116 was The Mind, Issue 117 is The Body. As I made my way home from the venue, VIA Atelier in Coal Drops Yard just north of St Pancras, I thought that perhaps considerations of the mind and the body should be joined by a third - age. After all, the main purpose of this website is to encourage people who’ve not ridden 200 km day rides regularly to give it a try: “never too late”.