Cycling in the Cotswolds

Fabian and I plan to tour Europe on our bikes. To this date, we had not done any serious cycle touring. So, we decided to spend our long weekend cycling around the Cotswolds, (Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire), and see what it was like. Some heavy questions weighed on us - would we survive? Could we do 40km a day for three days in a row? Would we like it?

So we set off quite early on Saturday morning. It was before 9am as we left home, and a sultry, warm day in London. Riding through the city reminded me of Singapore - the same hazy atmosphere, thick green trees. A bit sticky. London is really quite attractive in summer, with its lush trees hiding the grey buildings very effectively.

We got to Paddington in good time for the 9:18 to Oxford. Unlike our last trip there was nowhere special to put the bikes - they just went in the carriage with us. Fortunately the train wasn’t full so there was enough room (it was a different story on the way home!)

Arriving in Oxford an hour later, we cycled away from the station into the town. We wanted to get some food to take with us and have a quick look at Oxford. We had been there before, when it was cold so we knew our way around, which was nice. Oxford is full of bikes and bike racks, most looking about a hundred years old (not so different to London then!). We saw very few serious looking cyclists (ie wearing lycra), and only one other pair with panniers.

We bought some food at the markets and grabbed a sandwich in a little cafe. By this time it was about 12pm and we were dying to head off. We rode out of the city towards Eynsham, with fairly heavy traffic all the way. Oxford tries to have cycle paths most places, and sort of succeeds :-). (Actually the cycle path out of town was quite long. Some cycle paths - and bus lanes - in London last only 20 metres).

Looking at the map I could see there was a turnoff that we didn’t want to miss, otherwise we would have to slog up an enormous hill. We were starting to read the maps closely, but we got much better at it over the holiday! We found looking at the map at the start of the day and mentally planning where the hills would be was much better than just heading off and having no idea when the hills would end!

We made our turnoff, and continued along quite heavy traffic to Eynsham. It only was about “four miles” but of course that is about six kilometres, so even things that look close still seem to take ages to get to!! Eynsham was pleasant but we didn’t stop, as the afternoon was moving on.

After Eynsham we had to cross an A road, which is a major road in Britain, although not a freeway. To our pleased surprise we found that it had a bitumenised path running down it, so we could ride on the path until our turnoff (only about 500m). I don’t know if all A roads have such paths, but if they do, then it would be ok to ride along them occasionally!

Our aim for the day was Shipton-under-Wychwood, which looked like a small village on the map, close to the Wychwood forest, where we had booked a B & B. We were making good time, so, as you do, we decided to take a turnoff. The sign pointed temptingly to a “Roman Ruin”, so off we went. I had an education in signage - it is all designed for cars. So we cycled for about 10 minutes before we saw the next sign. A person in a car wouldn’t get impatient, as he drove for 2 minutes along a road, but we did! Consulting the map showed that there was indeed a roman ruin though so we headed on.

We head cross country

The next sign pointed down a bridle trail. This deserves some explanation! Britian is criss-crossed with thousands of paths, that have existed for centuries. Most of them are now mapped as public rights-of-way. Some of them are classified as footpaths, which you can’t ride horses or cycles on, and others as bridle ways, which you can. There is an ongoing battle to protect these rights-of-way, some more successful than others (on our third day we went on one that had been ploughed, making it almost impassable, which is illegal).

This bridle path was a country lane, pretty rough, and downhill. We hurtled down it (well, Fabian hurtled, and I inched!) and saw no sign of a roman ruin. Eventually we stopped another couple walking their dog (there were quite a few people around on this lovely day) and asked where it was. They pointed back slightly, but said it was closed due to foot and mouth. Oh. We backtracked and stared at this small building about 200 metres away in a field. Well, it would have been interesting…

We were enjoying the bridle track so much we thought we’d push on and come out the other side in a little town. The path quickly turned grassy and got even steeper. It was incredibly beautiful - being out in a super-green field, sunny, warm! I am beginning to like cross-country cycling! Thats why we got hybrid bikes :-)

I rounded a nasty turn at the bottom of the hill and continued along the field, battling to get out of a deep rut but managing. I slowed to wave to a lady with her dog and she said, “Your friend’s taken a tumble!” What?? I turned around and there he was, back near the turn, sitting quietly on the grass. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt, but he’d got his wheel stuck in the rut and was going a bit fast (ahem) to control it.

We had to straighten out the brake cable before we could set off, and replace the punctured tube. (Unfortunately, we didn’t check the tyre itself, which would reward us with another flat tyre in about 10 minutes). It took Fabian a little while to recover from the shock of a fall, and fix the tyre, but eventually we headed across the field. We went up a steep hill on the other side and found the little village we’d been heading for. A friendly sign advertised the Black Swan pub - “muddy feet and dogs welcome”! We didn’t need any further invitation and went in and collapsed in a heap.

A beer helped us both properly recover, and we finally managed to successfully repair tyres with a puncture kit. Fabian’s new tyre had hissed alarmingly on the way in and when we checked it, we discovered a big thorn in it which had punctured the new tube. Hmm. I guess we should check the tyre next time :-). I had visions of us running out of spare tubes but we took out our puncture repair kit and gave it a go. Time and care meant they repaired well.

We decided not to have lunch at the pub, which in hindsight was a huge mistake. It was about 2pm by this stage, but we had in mind a particular town for lunch and didn’t really think about it. As it turned out, it was about 2 hours ride away, and the town was so small the only pub was shut. By the time we got to our B & B, we were ravenous, and overworked. Another lesson - you can’t cycle on an empty stomach.

Anyway we didn’t know that at the time and headed off. The countryside was still beautiful. We were away from most of the traffic, in amongst the little country roads. The canola fields were flowering, the sun was shining, it was magical. We really felt like we were seeing England! We enjoyed it immensely, until we started to climb the longest hill of the day. This is where reading the contour lines would have been good - having a mental expectation of the size and length of the hill certainly helps me. But in this case, all we could do was mutter, stop every 200 metres to catch our breath, and try to ignore the pangs in our stomach!

Finally we got to the top and began our long descent to Ascott-under-Wychwood, our lunch town. The descent was fantastic, but boy, it is a bittersweet joy! You know how much it ached to get up there. You look at the passing motorist withs contempt (and some envy!) that they don’t know the agony of that hill. Still, mostly it was just gorgeous :-).

We made it to Ascott and the pub was shut. I was realising we had made a mistake by now and was getting a bit peeved! We decided to push on to Shipton which wasn’t far. It was also a fairly flat ride along the river.

Both Ascott and Shipton looked like real Cotswold towns. The Cotswolds was a wealthy wool growing area, and has nice cottages all though it. They are distinctive because they are made from local Cotswold stone, which is golden and very attractive. A nice change from red brick! When we got to Shipton we thought it was beautiful, with lots of magnificent “cottages” (that are really quite large houses) with big gardens that were overflowing with flowers. Truly, you can understand why tourists flock to England when you come here.

The camouflaged bed and breakfast

In Shipton, we had some trouble finding our B & B. The lady had given me quite detailed instructions which I wrote done but also assumed we would find it by a sign. But for some reason, she didn’t have a sign so we had a bit of trouble to find it! We finally found her number and Fabian rang her. The next thing I see he is turning around and waving - we were a 100 metres away and she was in her garden with her cordless phone!

She was elderly but extremely pleasant. By this stage, 4pm with four hours of cycling and only light food, we were exhausted. She very generously offered to make us sandwiches! So we sat in the back garden, which looked directly out over fields, and had lovely sandwiches and apples, listening to the faint sounds of a cricket match being played in the next field. Then we crashed into bed. I was thinking there is no way I can cycle around Europe if I am this dead after 40 kilometres! Fortunately, however, in our next two days we were more sensible with food, and it made a huge difference.

Dinner was at the local hotel/pub, which was quite nice and full of hilarious middle englanders. We sat next to one group of couples who were very loud in outdoing each other! They regaled each other with exploits (“went by helicopter to L’Expensive Restaurant, darling”) until the loudest one won. It was most amusing, and since we were too tired to say anything a useful diversion!

Day Two

True to form England switched off the sun the second day, and we had a much cooler ride through the villages of the Cotswolds. This time we looked closely at the map and had a good idea of what was coming - a big hill first, downhill to Swinbrook, then along the river to Burford, our destination for (roughly) lunch. Burford has been described as “the most beautiful town in England” so we thought it worth a look.

I thought the first hill would kill me but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn’t. And it was great coasting down to the river (Thames I think?) and the village of Swinbrook. We couldn’t believe how gorgeous Swinbrook was. A tiny village, with perhaps a hundred or so cottages dotted around. Pretty wealthy now I guess, as all the houses looked in good repair and had beautiful gardens. The road wound in amongst the cottages and trees, following the land. It was a very peaceful place.

When we got to Burford, (in time for lunch this time!) it was totally different. We rode in along a side route, and marvelled at the beautiful stone terrace houses. The town was obviously much bigger than Swinbrook, without being a city. The town is noted for being well preserved, and this is true. We saw very little new development, and the tiny bit there was had buildings in the local character. But on the whole the town centre was very original.

We burst out on the main street of Burford, into a cacophony of cars and people. It seemed everyone else in England had decided to come to Burford too! Oh well. We wandered up and down the main street, oohed and aahed over more gorgeous cottages, and saw the single lane medieval bridge. It was beautiful. Trying to get a coffee, however, at 12pm was impossible (“we only serve lunches between 12 and 3”). So we decided to buy picnic supplies and eat out of Burford.

Something that you notice a lot when touring by bicycle is the enormous contrast between quiet and busy. You will spend hours, or even a day, on the quietest roads imaginable, with nothing but the birds for company. Then bang, you arrive in a town and the noise and bustle is extraordinary. Also, not very nice! You are suddenly a “tourist” rather than an interesting person on a bicycle.

Anyway, we headed off to Bibury, also described as the most beautiful town in England. We thought we could compare them :-). It was a bit grey and cool all up but we found a nice field and had lunch. We found that having picnic food for lunch was an unbeatable idea, because you could stop when you were hungry, and didn’t have to “make it” to anywhere. I think I’m converted to this practice!

At this point I still had my doubts about whether we would make it to Bibury. On the map, we were going slightly out of our way to visit it, compared to our next B & B which was in Lechlade-on-Thames. Everything seemed uphill, it wasn’t warm - hmm. I had this idea that we might decide to ditch a bit of our route…

But then, slowly, Bibury came nearer and nearer. It was a gradual incline all the way, but we slowly ticked off the miles. Finally we rounded a corner and there was Bibury Court, a huge building visible across the fields. We coasted downhill and following the sign for “afternoon tea” made it to the Court.

The actual village was pretty small, and dominated by the large residence (now a hotel). They had a lovely cafe and we ordered afternoon tea (although, we had to wait 10 minutes, until 3pm, because they didn’t start serving tea until 3!! The group next to us said “Bloody English” and left!). It was heavenly to sit in their conservatory, nothing but glass between you and a fabulous garden, and have toasted tea cakes and hot chocolate. For the first time, I felt we were going to come through with our itinerary.

We relaxed there for a while. We found this another good technique - rest frequently. Having a half hour rest every hour is worth it (at our current level of strength and fitness, that is - your mileage may vary!) but it allows the muscles to recover. Keeping on keeping on is not such a good idea.

Joyfully, it was mostly gently downhill to Lechlade, and we made good time. Lechlade is a pleasant town just barely in Gloucestershire. Our B & B that night was a lot more professional. We got the feeling it was run as a business, whereas the one in Shipton had been like a hobby! (We signed the visitors book at Shipton and she only had about one visitor a week).

And miraculously, we were not comatose by the time we arrived in Lechlade. We did relax and shower, but we did not fall in to bed exhausted. Wow. We actually went out for a beer! Feeling so much better made us realise how foolish we had been the day before to not have proper food and rest breaks. And made me, at least, a lot more optimistic about being able to cycle through Europe.

A beer in a local pub was called for. The Crown looked like it was about 500 years old, with a low ceiling and exposed beams. Doesn’t stop them putting in a telly though :-). Dinner followed at the local Indian. I think we’ve finally figured out Indian restaurants - the trick is not to order two meat entrees, two meat mains, rice, and naan bread. Instead, we try chutneys and poppadams to start, then a single meat dish, a vegetable dish, a dahl (lentil) dish, a rice and maybe a yoghurt raita. We can actually eat all this, and it’s a relatively healthy meal! Clearly most of the other people haven’t figured this out, however, because you regularly see couples ordering dozens of dishes that they can’t possibly finish, and that contain too much meat and not enough veggies! Almost without fail people over-order in Indian restaurants. Fabian and I have a lifelong struggle against over-ordering (which started in Vietnam when he was on anti-malarial tablets that suppressed his appetite, so two mains and a rice ended up going unfinished) and we think we might have cracked it :-).

Day Three

Day three dawned bright and sunny, thank God, or I was ready to give up this cycling business! Just kidding. Really we were both feeling good, the B & B was very comfortable so we were very refreshed. I can’t resist commenting though on the obligatory cooked breakfast. Most B & B’s serve a cooked breakfast, some offer vegetarian options but on the whole they don’t. And on the whole, the quality is not that good. It is a shock to realise that you can’t get a decent fry up in England, but I can vouch for the fact that they are very few and far between. Most B & B’s, unfortunately, thoroughly murder breakfast.

Heading out of Lechlade our destination was Oxford. Blissfully, it was ever so slightly downhill all the way, and we had a roaring wind behind us. This made for fantastic cycling! We zoomed along at 25 - 29 km /hour. We reached the little village of Bamford in record time. This little village was full of people, there seemed to be something on. According to Fabian, it was Morris Dancing (I don’t know what that is though because we didn’t see any!). But if you could track down the funny dressed men you would apparently see them dance. Nonetheless it was a charming town with a great holiday feel to it. We found the local church, by chance, and wandered in to a flower exhibition. The local flower society ladies were serving tea and biscuits so we sat down and had coffee and sultana cake! It was brilliant - homemade fete food like I used to eat when I was a kid. Again, we got a real sense of being in England.

After Bampton we thought we’d head off road again, having sufficiently recovered from the spill the first day. We found a bridle path that would cut quite a bit off our route and only looked about a mile long. Great! First job was to find it though. After mucking around at the wrong bridge (oops) we found the right bridge, went past, backtracked, oh. There it is. Luckily it wasn’t closed for foot and mouth so we cycled off.

It was again lovely to be off the road. We were cycling next to a deep river, with a row of trees on one side and an open field on the other. It was truly gorgeous! The weather was sunny and it was exciting to be off road again. Unfortunately after a short distance the path had been ploughed! This is not legal, I think, on public rights of way but what can you do? We pushed the bikes through the ploughed bits, before finally deciding to brave the razor grass on our left to get down to the field. This was a good move, more open riding but boy, is that ground hard and pot-holed!!

We kept consulting the map to try and keep on the right path. We joined the Thames Path at one point and had to cross the stream. On the other side we were riding right next to a field of golden canola - it was magnificent. Anyway this all took a long while, so we decided to have lunch. Following our new practice we had brought it with us, which again proved a good idea.

After lunch we weren’t quite sure of the correct path but headed off beside a field for some houses in the distance, and it turned out to be fine. By the time we hit bitumen again, we had spent about an hour and a half off road! To go about a mile. Hmm. Tempting as they look, the conditions on bridle paths are very unpredictable. We’ll continue to explore them, but in small doses, because they slow you right down.

After a massive climb we stopped next to a church. We were chuffed to be back on our route. From here it really was a cruise back into Oxford. We were feeling happy and strong, glad that we had cycled to our itinerary. We eventually cycled about 125 kilometres in 3 days, including to and from Paddington. We felt that we had finally done some cycle touring, and whats more, we could have kept on going! There is something very seductive about putting everything on your bike and heading off each day. I have a lot of optimism for Europe next year!

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