|
June 23 Friday sunny Bicycle touring England Sharon and I were up for breakfast at 8 AM. Alastair watered the pansies with a crystal jug, prior to his departing on the train for work in London, while his wife Bruni looked on. When Alastair left, he was halfway down the lane and still calling out good cheer and best wishes for Sharon and I to have a safe bicycle touring trip and wishing that my mom gets better. Godspeed. Bruni's first client for the day arrived (she's a psychiatrist with a home office) and Sharon and I were left to pack up our bicycle touring equipment and bicycle touring clothes that had somehow become spread around the house. We loaded up our touring bikes and pedalled off for another look at the incredible red poppy field that Pat had shown a couple of days prior. After a quick photo where Sharon convinced me to stand amongst the field of poppies, we pedalled off, following route B4009 in a southwest direction towards Stonehenge. In a small town I looked for a deserted spot to take a leak, but before I could, a fellow on a clunker bike pedalled up and asked if I was looking for someone because there was another fully loaded touring cyclist just at the bottom of the lane. It was Sharon waiting for me. "Where am I trying to cycle to?" he asks. I tell him where we're headed and he gives me directions for a good cycle route to Stonehenge. I should have told him I was looking for a pee spot. Off I pedal, my bladder still full and about to burst. In another small town I exchanged my leftover Italian lira and French francs for English pounds. The commission costs me $10! We cycle to a canola field for lunch. The
wind is blowing behind us which keeps things cool, but my thermometer,
in the sun, reads 34º C. Bicycle touring England isn't so
bad after all. In Newbury, the Sainsbury food store has hot water in the washrooms. Sharon goes in and wipes up. We cycle out of Newbury, cycling west and crossing under a busy road on a pedestrian bike pedway. We are quickly in the countryside. We cycle for a stand of trees in the general direction we want to go toward Stonehenge. Sharon pushes her fully loaded touring bike through an opening in the forest and effectively disappears. Not bad considering she has her bike clad with neon-pink bicycle touring pannier covers. We set up our Kelty two-person bicycle touring tent. Later, we hear cyclists and horses go by. |
