the first day of our holiday

on saturday morning, we left the flat at 7:30am. clementine had a shock when a carful of boisterous youths apparently tried to knock me down. i just got a bit of red bull on me for my troubles, but it was soon washed off by a light shower.

we were blocked by roadworks at the bottom of the parade, so walked our bikes on the pavement beside the one-way street between the avenue and the station. we then cycled out along tachbrook road, through bishops tachbrook and over the m40. it was around this time that my red bull was washed off.




we then cycled parallel to the m40, along the b4100. near lighthorn, clementine's chain came off going up a hill so we paused, and reset our cyclocomputers. continuing through gaydon and past the heritage motor museum, the road was fairly flat but before warmington the road went up a steep-looking hill where luckily we turned off.


a little further on we passed the historical site of the battle of edgehill, where there seems to be an army base to this day.




we passed a "windmill hill" with a real windmill including shiny metal sails, but didn't pause to photograph it.




quite soon we were passing the long compton campsite where we'd be staying on the return journey, and we stopped off in moreton-in-marsh for lunch.

after lunch we cycled further south up to the top of a long slightly downhill ridge atop the cotswold hills. about this time it started to rain, and hard! we put on our waterproofs, me accidentally dropping my bike in a puddle in the process, and cycled on. we were pretty wet and miserable at this time, and tryed to find shelter, but the first house we tried had nobody home.

we carried on in hope of a pub, and stopped at a mini-supermarket to ask directions. i had seen a 'ph' off the road in great rissington and indeed this was the nearest pub! as we got down to the pub carpark, a few members of a visiting cricket team asked directions, but we couldn't help them. we stacked up our panniers (all 8 of them) in the hallway of the pub and went in. the pub is called the lamb inn, and they were very welcoming!

we sat and drank hot drinks, and they gave clementine a couple of warm blankets. later on, ruth tumble dried our waterproofs. we stayed in the lamb for around four hours, in the company of most of the visiting cricket team whose game had been rained off. we never did find out where they had come from. the rain looked like it was going to continue forever, and we almost gave up and tried to book a room. apart from being extraordinarily expensive, they didn't have any free rooms, and neither did the local b&b, so we had to carry on.

luckily, as we were saddling up our bikes with panniers, the rain stopped entirely and the sun came out! i don't know how we'd have carried on if it had kept raining! it wasn't too far to fairford, however, and we arrived at the second chance touring park at 7:30pm, half a day since we started!

we took longer than we had planned setting up camp, and arrived at the local pub, the red lion in castle eaton, which is apparently the first pub on the thames! we were there after 9pm, and the sign seemed to say they stopped serving at 9, but luckily it turned out that they served until 9.30 on saturdays, so we were in luck. we had cheese sandwiches, which we couldn't finish, and some lovely chips, but we just weren't hungry, so we got the sandwiches wrapped and we took them back with us.