Sunday, day three of the Knights tour of the Cotswolds. Unfortunately the day didn’t live up to its name as we were greeted in the morning by dark cloudy skies and a cooler temperature. Before the ride got underway there was a small matter of the prestigious “Awards” ceremony.
The “Mr Happy” 😃 award was unanimously presented to Michael in recognition of his entertaining ‘performance’ from the previous evening, while the “Mr Grumpy” 😠award went to Neil for all his moaning about Michael’s route on Friday, much to the chagrin of Matty who is always in the running.
Leaving Poulton the group headed to Ampney St Mary before turning north towards Barnsley, “Barnsley?” we thought “No not that one”. The ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ one, I certainly didn’t see it. Next port of call was Coln Rogers, that name led to some schoolboy type humour at the expense of Colin.
We then followed the route of the Coln River to Coln St Dennis before arriving at Fossebridge. As we looked up the road ahead we were confronted with what appeared to be a 20% climb on the busy A429. “Just a little way then turn right” advised Neil after consulting his phone maps. With huge sighs of relief we set off turning right, continuing to follow the course of the river passing Stowell on the way to another coffee stop at Northleach.
On leaving Northleach we began to head south via Eastington and Aldsworth with some short steep climbs and quick downhills. “It should be mostly flat from here” said Neil confidently only to be caught out again as we faced more climbs on the way to Coln St Aldwyns. It did eventually flatten out as we cycled into Hatherop. Just as we came to the junction we were confronted by a convoy of Minis turning into the junction preventing our exit. After we’d watched car after car passing ahead of us, the convoy ground to a halt, allowing us to continue to Lechlade.
When we pulled into the town, Neil consulted his maps again before declaring “Left here!” We’d only gone a few yards when he then changed his mind “No that’s the wrong way” before turning around. Watching him continuously consult his maps at every junction was a bit “old school” compared to having a modern Satnav with turn by turn instructions.
Lechlade on Thames lies on the edge of the Cotswolds and is known to be an inland port at the highest navigable point on the Thames. Our choice for lunch was the Tea Chest cafe along the edge of the river. At this point we said goodbye to Michael who had to get back to catch a train.
After lunch we retraced out route into Lechlade then passed through the waterpark heading for Whelford. On the way past RAF Fairford we formed a chain gang as the speed hit 20mph. Soon we arrived at the Spotted Cow pub for some refreshments before the short journey back to the house.
