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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3688 |
3rd May 2017 Mt. Biking: Radley to Oxford Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy, windy and chilly :( Max Speed: Distance Covered: Wednesday 3rd May – Bike **** Radley to Oxford along the Thames – cloudy, windy and chilly :( Good night in our spot in Radley near Oxford which turned out to be the school carpark and things got a little hectic at 8.45 when the kids were dropped off! We were up early and after Breakfast we drove a mile or so over the railway line to Lower Radley parking in the lane 400 metres from the Thames Path. It was a day for some extra layers as it was breezy and cold. With picnic in the rucksack and GPS on we started off down a Private lane leading to a college rowing club, the Thames and, we were pleased to see that there were no ‘no biking signs’ :) Which is obvious really as there are lots of boats whose best form of transport when moored is by bike. We then turned left past the eight-man rowing boats, sadly in the racks and we saw none on the river, over a small footbridge to our first swing gate where we had to lift the bikes over. It was a nice wide path even if a little bumpy! We came to our first lock at Sandford where we had to dismount and walk past the lock with the old mill converted into flats and several moored boats. It’s nice cycling along the main river, something we have never done before and as said before we would love to bike the South Downs Way, we would now like to bike the length of the Thames! We passed men working on floating platforms mending bridge and clearing trees, huge expensive house with impressive river frontage, past cows in the field and geese with fluffy yellow young. We came to our best lock at Iffley, with a lovely lock keeper’s cottage, some nice footbridges and even a place for canoe portage. Past Isis rowing club and several more on the other side of the river. As we neared Oxford things went downhill a little with several moored boats in a bad state of disrepair:( and in our opinion should be removed. Reaching our first main bridge in Oxford it was just a short ride to the city centre. It was heaving with Japanese tourists clicking madly with Canon and Nikons with an amazing amount of selfie sticks. We did feel a bit like fish out of water! Our first stop was the large Christchurch College but we couldn’t take the bike through the big wrought iron gate so had to lock them up which we were not too keen on as there were bikes everywhere some had been abandoned for months with the only thing left the frames! Everyone had really heavy duty bike locks too and very old and decrepit bikes so our’s would have been good to target!! There was a big queue to pay £8 to look around the inner sanctum of the pretentious upper classes! We passed on that and were keener to find a loo as we were bursting so after taking a pic of the impressive building we walked around the block past cricket pitches before finding the Grand Town hall and found a top free loo but they wanted to charge us for a town map so returned to the bikes and were relieved to find they were still there. We just rode around to see what we could find. A lot of the roads are supposed to be car free but you had to keep your eyes peeled for the large amount of taxi’s, buses and bikes! The old college buildings are imposingly impressive and amazing to have survived unchanged for so many years! We came to the Bodleian Library past lots of trucks from a film crew, rather wishful thinking it might be an episode of ‘Endeavour’! Then stumbled upon the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ more by luck than judgement, past Trinity and the pretty Balliol College with beautiful inner courtyard and although we were happy to look through the door it was a bargain £3 to enter if you wanted to. Mag seemed to think it had featured in Phillip Pullmans ‘Northern Lights:). We had had enough of crowds and culture so tried to find the river and our escape route, luckily, we found a Bridge street which led us back to the Thames. Back at Iffley lock we stopped for our picnic closely watched by a couple of Rooks. Two boats passed through the locks while we were there. Then we pushed on back to the van. We had been out 4 hrs covering 15 miles and enjoyed our brief encounter with culture:) The perfect amount of time for us. As it was only one o clock we set Felixstowe in the sat-nav and headed for home. The best part of the journey was the 20/30 Red Kites we saw mainly flying over the M40 but then as we reached the M25 they just disappeared??? It was then the very busy M25 and A12 before reaching home at 4.30 checking The Dip. It’s looking good for tomorrow, unloaded the van although getting the bike rack off was difficult but nothing a little WD 40 didn’t cure. So a top 8 days down South visiting Hannah’s bump - the next time we make that journey we will be Grandparents for the first time – can’t wait:) Photo Gallery Here |
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