Across the fields

Days 10 & 11 6th & 7th September. Malmesbury-Oxford-Aylesbury

I woke up to another lovely sunny morning. The plan was to leave Malmesbury by 8.30 as Oxford was my next destination and over 50 miles away. Having said goodbye to Jean I hoped we would be able to meet up again but maybe not leave it for another 30 years.

Crossing the Thames via a lock gate

The ride to Oxford was lovely, along rolling country lanes, passing through pretty Cotswold villages with the sun shining all the time.

My routes are becoming increasingly difficult as I prefer to stay on the quiet country roads, but as I am now crossing over to the East there are lots of motorways and busy roads to cross. At Cricklade I had to cycle about a mile north to cross over the A419 and then a mile south before I could pick up the road I was on again.

During the afternoon I passed a pub and in need of a cup of tea I decided to stop. I joined two couples who were out for a Sunday cycle ride and after a while started to discussing my route. I was told that the road I was on didn't actually cross the Thames as I had thought. It was possible to cross via a couple of fields and then down to a lock. They kindly offered to show me the route, which I am very grateful for as I'm sure I'd never have found my way and would probably still been wandering around the fields now! So a big thank you for your help and generous donation for Toilet Twinning.

I soon arrived on the outskirts of Oxford, but managed to take a wrong turn which took me down a long hill, which I then had to come back up again. I soon found Tom and Ella's house. I didn't need to look for the number, when I saw the bikes I knew I was at the correct address.

I was made very welcome and shared a lovely meal with the family, in fact I was made so comfortable they were in danger of me not moving on!

But the next morning was sunny again and I headed of for Aylesbury which was a fairly short ride. Ella and her son were heading off at the same time as me so we cycled together for a short while before we waved goodbye.

Ooooo...lovely maps!

For the first part of this journey I have been using map pages cut from Richard's road map book (sorry Richard) as I didn't have the O.S.  Travelmaster for the South West. I had only cut out pages as far as Oxford and was now using the O.S. map. I soon realised that the map book pages were much easier to use as the scale was 2 ½ miles to the inch which was clear enough to read while I cycled. So once I arrived in Aylesbury and had been fed and watered I headed for town on the bus to buy a map book and some lip balm (no one  told me how sore my lips might get). 

Tuesday is a day off so I will spend my time cutting the pages I need from the map book.