TLWWINSASOBT was singing in a fund-raising concert on the other side
of the downs, so we naturally decided that the sensible thing to do
was to cycle there and back. It's only about twenty-five miles from
Oxford to Ashampstead in a more-or-less straight line, so we set off in
that direction. Sadly, that involves going straight up the scarp slope
onto the Ridgeway, and even more sadly it involves a couple of miles of
unsurfaced byways at the top. It is true that it had been raining for
about three days, and we did get a couple of showers on the way out
that were well into the hosing-down regime, so we got rather more bogged
down than we might have expected (touring kit with mudguards and full
panniers...) and arrived what-you-might-call a little late for the
afternoon rehearsal. In retrospect it would have been more sensible to
take the train to Pangbourne. No really. However, the odd thing about
the journey was, especially given the grand view of the sunlit downs
(somewhere in the distance) and assorted kestrels and small furry
things (nearby), that after leaving Abingdon we saw only two cyclists,
both on mountain bikes and descending the dip slope. Oh, and there was
a quad bike, but that's not a bike is it?
I think most of our clothes are dried off by now, and most of the mud is
off the bikes. They still have a slightly chalky sheen, though.
After the rehearsal, the tea (by the gallon, with home made cakes...
there's a lot to be said for knowing someone who sings in a choir) and
the concert we set off back by road, down "that hill" into Streatley and
back by road. (We confess that, it being pitch black and all, we wimped
out on the hill and walked down.) It was already closing time by the
time we stopped for a snackerelle in Goring. That was when we saw the
fluorescent yellow couple on the (Claude Butler, I think) tandem (with
decent front lights) going the other way. We only saw one other person
on a bike (dressed in back, on an unlit mountain bike, on the pavement
in Wallingford) all the way back to Oxford. Where were all the cyclists
on Saturday? More particularly where were all the cyclists on Saturday
night? There was some brilliantly scary lightning, and we had the roads
almost to ourselves most of the way.
Not that I plan to do it again in a hurry.
The other odd thing is that we saw almost no wildlife on the night leg.
There was a badger that rumbled across the road just as we left Ashampstead,
and another in the field it was running into, but after that there was
nothing more than the odd wood-pigeon that we startled until we got back
to Oxford and found a deer watching us by the side of the road.
