Ride report

After 3 rides cancelled due to wind, it was good to get out. The wind hadn’t gone away though. In fact it was still coming – strongly in our faces all the way to Nettlebed! To made up for it, it was a lovely sunny day and literally not a cloud in the blue sky. The hills in Garsington and Cuddesdon woke everyone up. While regrouping after Cuddesdon,
Jackie became dog rescuer in chief, and carried a small puppy back to the house just round the corner. Three peeled off in Watlington for an early stop at the Spire and Spoke. The rest of us tackled Howe Hill out of Watlington on the B481 to get to the top of the Chilterns. Lunch at the Cheese Shed was welcomed by all, after the head wind all morning. There was some discussion as to whether the Howe Hill climb out of Watlington
was harder than the climb up to Christmas Common. The answer is (according to rwgps) Howe Hill tops at 224m and Christmas Common at 241m. Howe Hill was deemed the harder – it might be a bit lower than Christmas Common, but it has a steeper gradient in the steep section. After lunch we had a good descent from Nuffield. In Ewelme we had to take a diversion. There were quite a few fire engines and a couple of ambulances blocking the road, with much smoke not far ahead. A thatch roof house fire. The road was blocked as the fire crews had pulled a lot of the thatch onto the road. Our planned straight route via Newington was thus moved a bit north, with the advantage of the quiet bridleway between Brightwell Baldwin and Chalgrove. The B480 soon brought us into east Oxford.