Ride report

A grey autumn morning with some light rain, not as heavy as forecast. We took a fairly direct route to coffee at Benson, with a diverted route through Benson as the main road in the village was closed for remembrance day commemorations. The cafe at Benson was very quiet, and conversation ceased when Big Ben was heard striking 11.00. After coffee, we skirted the bottom of the Chilterns, pausing to let a convoy of tractors pass, before the steady climb up to Woodmancote. This route was a long gradual climb, with no steep sections making it one of the easiest ways to climb the Chilterns. The orangey-yellow leaves on the trees stood out well against the grey sky. Lunch was at the Black Horse in Checkendon, still its usual self with its usual array of customers. As we were early, we had the end room to ourselves, and were joined by the pub cat and the pub dog. The Black Horse often has someone turn up in an “interesting” (or old) form of transport. Today it was the tractor convoy we saw earlier in the morning, along with an old steam traction engine. After lunch we headed back to Oxford via Garsington.