NCN5 Oxford - Reading

In message <[email hidden]>, "Just zis Guy, you know?"
<[email hidden]> writes

<snipped>

Excellent letter in the /Reading Chronic/, Guy.

[ Makes a change from gay vicars. Bloody xians spend their lives believing in fairies, a real one
comes along and they don't want to know!?? ]

Cheers
--
Keith Wootten

Just zis Guy said:

Today I are been mostly working in Oxford, so I thought I'd take the bike up on the train and ride
back [to Reading] along NCN route 5.

It is definitely the scenic route. The most direct route door to door is a little under 25 miles,
along the highly unpleasant A4074 (not recommended). Shortest reasonable route is probably the B480
/ B481 (via Watlington and Nettlebed) at something under 30 miles. NCN5 was 39 miles! And being a
Sustrans route quite a bit of it was "traffic free" (i.e off road or footpaths) so it was difficult
at times to maintain a sensible cruising speed - I only managed to average a shade over 15mph,
which is considerably slower than I woudl have expected. The gale-force wind didn;t help much
either :-/

Signage was generally good and the surface tolerable apart from Oxford's comedy cycle lanes and a
couple of stretches of Quiet Lane (a funny road which seems to join lots of small villages in
Oxfordshire - unless I've misunderstood and it's a euphemism for "road the council can't be arsed
to maintain"😉.

I lost the route twice, once at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, where I ended up on a fast piece of A road
(I think the NCN takes in a bridleway) and once between Ipsden and Checkendon which is an area I
know pretty well anyway so wasn't a problem.

The route is mostly flattish, in as much as that is possible in the Chilterns, and the roads were
forthe most part very quiet. Lots of bunnies round Scenic Didcot Power Station, and a bit of
humorous signage - an NCN routemarker labelled "London" pointing into the station :-)

A slow but generally pleasant ride. But next time it's the B480 I think.

Nice route. I did that very same ride in September - but took in some of the Thames Tow Path.
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"Keith Wootten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Excellent letter in the /Reading Chronic/, Guy.

Thanks for that - hadn't spotted it :-)

--
Guy
===

WARNING: may contain traces of irony. Contents may settle after posting.
chapmancentral.comchapmancentral.comOpen ↗

you know? said:

"Keith Wootten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Excellent letter in the /Reading Chronic/, Guy.

Thanks for that - hadn't spotted it :-)

Hi Guy

As you may well know, <http://www.chapmancentral.com> isn't doing too well at the moment ;-)

What's this letter of yours all about?

James

--
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you know? said:

"Keith Wootten" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Excellent letter in the /Reading Chronic/, Guy.

Thanks for that - hadn't spotted it :-)

Guy

Seen it later on down.

James

--
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in article [email hidden], James Hodson at
[email hidden] wrote on 19/7/2003 1:06 am:

Quoted message said:

As you may well know, <http://www.chapmancentral.com> isn't doing too well at the moment ;-)

As advertised, it is offline during a transfer of ISP. It will be back as soon as BT will accept an
order for Demon for ADSL on my line - which they won't do until a week after they've disconnected
their own service. A bit of blatant obstructionism on BTs part.

Guy