Boulter's Lock - Hedgerley - Walton-on-T
An auspicious day. Clocks put forward one hour to give us
more evening light; Easter Sunday and early traffic on the roads to Kingston Bridge was light; despite a crisp frost,
the roads were dry and mostly ice-free; for those who had just spent forty days
in the wilderness, today marked the end of a self-imposed Lenten fast. So it
was that three ladies and five gentlemen (let’s give Simon the benefit of the
doubt) converged on Kingston
Bridge. Has the word
‘lady’ really become a term of offence and disrespect to the female of the
species? So I was informed this week on Woman’s Hour.
Notwithstanding, all happily followed Dave’s lead across the
sun-lit Thames towards our Thames-side mid-morning
destination at Boulter’s Lock near Maidenhead. With the river as our guide and
the altimeter firmly stuck at sea-level, there was barely a ripple in the road
surface to slow our progress through Sunbury and past Shepperton Studios to
Staines, Runnymede, Windsor, Eton Wick, Dorney and the Fat Duck at Bray.
Somehow, Dave managed to steer us across the Bath Road without our noticing to a
well-earned bev and bun at Jenner’s Riverside Café by Boulter’s Lock. Here we were
joined by a bemused foursome who, for some reason, had been waiting for us at
Boulter’s Lock Café. How could there have been any doubt?
Refuelled, we left a swollen Thames
for the gentle climb into Taplow, turned East just short of Cliveden to enjoy
the narrow lanes of Littleworth before a short circuit along the A355 and
beside the M4 took us up and down to Hedgerley and the whinny of the White
Horse.
With a good choice of sandwiches and a bewildering selection
of beers for those so inclined (my choice was a very tasty Churchill’s Pluck),
we were soon being gently roasted by the volcanic heaters beside our table in
the tented extension. By the end of the meal there was more lycra on the floor
than on our shoulders, as well as the spleen we had vented on such objects of
our discontent as our unworthy inheritors of the ‘rotten boroughs’ and in
particular the dimwits now devaluing the BBC. How far down can dumbing-down go?
Much further still it would seem.
What better therapy for discontent that the steep climb out
of Hedgerley and then the mostly downhill glide through Fulmer, past Pinewood
Studios, Shredding Green, Poyle, Stanwell, Ashford and Charlton back to the
banks of the Thames at Walton. With the Garden Centre at Upper Halliford
already shuttered, we took what cheer we could at Dino’s amid the building
works of the reincarnated Walton
Bridge. Our thanks to
Dave for taking advantage of the extra hour of daylight and giving us an
excellent and what for some may have been the longest ride of the year, my
Cateye reading 83 miles.
Jeff
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