Cycling the thames

Last week my friend and I embarked on a challenge: to cycle 100 miles from my home town Swindon, to my friends home city, London. Since neither of us had ever cycled this distance before, we decided to break the journey up with a nights camping at Maidenhead, just past Reading. The plan was very last minute, and neither of us had much time to question the sanity of our decision: our parents however did, and were fairly concerned about our physical abilities. However, tuesday morning we set off, bright eyed and optimistic: our bikes laden with panniers, rucksacks on our backs, our luminsent high vis jackets on show and enough food to see us through until dinner. 

Views across Wiltshire from the ridgeway path 

The first day saw us through three counties: Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey, with some great views along the ridgeway path. We passed Uffington White Horse Hill, lots of idyllic villages, some great countryside views, and some cool wildlife. We were particularly excited by some marbled white butterflies and lots of red kites.

Whilst the ridgeway cycle route boasted beautiful views of the counties we were passing through, the lack of fellow cyclists ended up not being a suprise. The paths were quite trecherous, with constant vigilance required to avoid the potholes. This proved easier said than done, with the regular need to check on the ratteling panniers, and the odd removal of flies that had zoomed into our eyes. This proved too much for Claire at around the halfway mark of the first day - whilst trying to rid a fly from the eye she hit one of the potholes and flew over the handlebars! Thankfully we had savlon at the ready, and we were soon back on the road (/rocky path).

Unfortunately the heavens opened around 7 miles from Reading which, whilst quite refreshing, was fairly unlucky as it meant alot of our clothes and sleeping equipment also got rather wet! We soon rectafied the situation by comandeering a hand drier in the campsite toilet, a wet sleeping bag wasn't a massively appealing thought!

After a nice hearty meal and quite alot of sleep we began day 2 of the cycle. The second leg of the journey was much flatter than the first as we hugged the Thames for the large majority of the day. We passed through Windsor park, Runnymede (the site of the Magna Carta signing), Hampton Court, and Richmond park (lots of deer). My favourite was probably Richmond park as for some reason it reminded me of the african plains... I may have been suffering from exhaustion at this point, but the open fields and long grasses swaying in the wind did make me think an elephant or two wouldn't look ridiculously out of place. 

By late evening on the second day we were crossing Putney Bridge which a sense of achievement and the longing for milkshakes and mcdonalds - naturally we had to indulge to celebrate our safe arrival. Regardless of the rain, injuries and Claire cycling for half a day with her breaks on... the 100 mile cycle was a success, maybe next time we'll attempt it in a day! 

The crossing of Putney Bridge