Our route took us from Westcott along the A41, towards Bicester, to Woodham. Here we took a right turn into a field which was marked as a bridleway. Our first hurdle, quite literally, was a typical rusty farmers gate with an impossible latch, after struggling for many minutes and commenting on how on earth you would hold your horse, tackle the gate and avoid the nasty A41 traffic, we decided to abandon opening the gate and lifted our bikes over the gate!!! (Not so easy with a horse!) I feel a moan to the local bridleway's council coming on!
Once over the gate and on our bikes once more we proceeded with some caution as the amount of cow pats in the field suggested we should be keeping an eye out for the said beasts, but a quick scan of the field assured us that they were not present!! Easy going it was never going to be especially following the 2 days of heavy rain we had that week, but my legs soon told me that my fitness levels were far from what I thought, but we carried on over several fields negotiating many gates, some good, some bad, but I informed the Belles that this is what us 'horse riders' have to deal with all the time and there are different techniques for different latches!! Sad that I am, but many years of riding these local bridleways gave me somewhat of an advantage on these skills!!!
Eventually we came to a railway crossing and this lead us into an arable field with a fine covering of wheat grass showing through, although there was a frost and the ground appeared somewhat firm, this was far from reality and quickly we found ourselves being bogged down in the mud! We quite literally ploughed through it and had to resort to walking and dragging our bikes as the wheels were so clogged with mud they wouldn't turn!! 
Eventually we rejoined the road on the Shipton Lee - Quainton stretch and I for one was pretty pleased to be back on the easier going again or so I thought..................
No comments:
Post a Comment