Despite sterling work by our experienced accommodations manager, Vicky, it is now clear there is none to be had, at a price we can pay.
Right from the start it was looking bad with the Winchester YHA closed down. Then B&B prices began to reveal an alarming fact: cycling The South Downs Way is going to be NO budget trip. It’s a minimum £50 per person per night even in the most (apparently) simple of abodes.
But wait...enter our own super hero - Steve – a man with a plan yearning to become a man with a van.
The plan? - said van, complete with a magnificent support team and amazing logistics, will transport our tents, packs, pots and pans over hill and dale so that we can go self-sufficient. Sorted.
With decision made, Steve was fast on the case calling local van hire companies to agree a fair price. And it seems the plan will become reality. The Belles trip is to become a Pollicott community travellers charabanc mini-break with plenty of room for anyone who wants to join us. Even Des gave the offer fair consideration until he realised he would be on cat duty. He’s looking forward to the welcome home party instead at Gatehangers.
Clearly, we are all very excited – the van adds an entire new dimension to our adventure. We can cycle and cycle all day, get picked up in the van and travel in (some kind of) style to any campsite that will have us. As free spirits we will be in our element (or open to them anyway) and are so looking forward to the freedom of the open road, skies and hopefully not heavens.
Obviously we do not intend to be just any Pikeys. Menus and knicker packing spreadsheets still need to be worked on which means...oh no, oh yes...another planning session!
The South Downs Way – 10th-12th June 2011 – bring on the Pikeys on their Bikeys!
It has been almost three years since the Belles set a challenge. We haven't stopped, we simply need to re-set and re-focus and find time to get ourselves back in the zone.
Monday 23 May 2011
Wednesday 18 May 2011
May 15th Mega-ride
My alarm screaming at me at 6:00am on sunday morning was NOT a welcome interruption to my much needed beauty sleep, but I somehow made it from my bed to the front of the house with my bike by 7:10. I set off to Pollicott to meet the other Belles and didn't pass a single car on the way which was lovely - not only for the peaceful ride but also knowing that no passers by had been subjected to my miserable morning face heaving its way up the Ashendon hills. I arrived fashionably late to find only Vicky and Sian at the top of Pollicott - had Alex been as enthusiastic about the early morning as I had and was running a little late also? Oh, no. Just me then.. Alex was already halfway to Winchendon!
Myself, Sian and Vicky cruised our way down the hill towards Winchendon and caught up with Alex at the very top by the crossroads where we stopped for a drink, sweet and continued on towards Cuddington. I was becoming increasingly concerned about the noises coming from my rear brakes and expressed this concern to Vicky who agreed that I should probably change the pads soon to avoid having to bail out into a hedge at an inconvenient downhill moment sometime in the near future.
From Cuddington we made our way out onto the A418 via a small country lane, turned right at the main road and then look a left onto a severely overgrown jungle bridleway. Sian's "Oh someone has trodden it down! It's much better than it was. How kind!" baffled me as I looked at the 5ft tall mixture of grass and stinging nettles. TRODDEN DOWN?! Vicky braved the 'trodden down' path first with Alex behind, then myself and Sian followed with our cropped cycling trousers. Halfway through the A418 jungle we had to dismount to leap over a fallen log and right over the top of a badger set. I would be lying if I said I didn't have visions of getting mauled by an angry jungle badger. Ever the optimist. The girls kindly reminded me that angry jungle badgers are indeed nocternal.. so over I went! Many screams of pain came from myself and Sian over the course of the trail due to sever hammering of legs thanks to 'trodden down' grass and ginorma-nettles. Despite this there was a lot of laughter and I actually secretly really enjoyed it.
We emerged from the other side of the angry badger ginorma-nettle jungle into Haddenham where we turned left and continued past the garden centre towards Kingsey (I think! - At this point I had lost my bearings and couldn't tell exactly where we were) But before I knew it we were back on another offroad bridleway which wasn't overgrown but was very hard ground. Around 5 minutes down the track I spotted two horses in a field to our right and seized the opportunity to stop and give them a fuss. This would also give Alex and Vicky a chance to catch up with myself and Sian who had gone full pelt along the rough terrain. After 5 minutes or so we still couldn't hear or see the other two - so Sian made her way back to make sure they had taken the correct route, whilst I stayed and kept the two ponies company. I was in my element for about 15 minutes when the others emerged - and it had seemed that Vic and Alex hadn't taken the correct route and had started off in a different direction altogether! A quick farewell to my 4 legged friends and we were back on track - eventually bringing us out onto the Phoenix trail and into Thame.
From Thame we made our way to Shabbington - past The Old Fisherman (my favourite - cycling past your favourite pub on a sunny day is a HARD THING TO DO) then into Long Crendon for a well deserved and much needed bacon sandwich for myself and Vicky and a teacake for Sian. Alex was putting us all to shame by not having any food whatsoever! Fuelled up we carried on towards Chilton - where we lost Sian as she had to shoot off to spent some weekend time with son Joe which left Alex, Vicky and myself. Without our Mrs Motivator we sneakily stopped at the top of one of the final hills and enjoyed the view of the back of Pollicott, had a 5 minute sunbathe and sit down on a bench. On the final leg up to Brickhill I caught sight of a very attractive runner - I consulted Alex with an appropriate facial expression and she completely agreed. Two quick stops for me up the Brickhill and I was on my way home - where I arrived at 11:50. A long but rewarding ride - highlights for me were definitely angry badger jungle and bacon sarnie - Oh, and the runner! Looking forward to the next.
Amber xx
Sunday 8 May 2011
Oh (la la) what a night...
Following careful planning (often over a wine or two) our French night finally came to be and, oh, what a night.
It all began when Andy Dale, landlord of our beloved Gatehangers Inn, Ashendon, suggested we Belles ‘take over the pub’ for a night. It captured our imagination. We had planned, anyway, to host a murder mystery based on the evening we all enjoyed for Chris Reeves 18th birthday (loosely based on Allo Allo). So it was decided we would change that plan and host a French night in Gatehangers.
We quickly agreed that each of us would prepare one course and ‘The Menu’ became the entertaining subject of many cycle training rides and then, eventually, came the very enjoyable process of test cooking and team tasting.
Each course had its own mini drama.
Canapes – by Amber – a selection of vol au vents:
Amber struggled to find vol au vent cases on Thursday night and plumped for DIY version after good advice from a lady in Asda. She was up until 2am trying to achieve this and failed. On Friday Waitrose came to the rescue and Alex made the mercy dash to collect them. The cases were then baked in Pollicott ovens various ready for Amber’s yummy fillings to be added last minute.
Soup – by Sian – French Onion with Gruyere and French bread.
Sian’s work and netball commitments meant the only time to chop onions (lots of them) was 10.30 pm on Thursday. Once again this became a team event as Alex, Steve and Andy all pitched in to get the job done by midnight. The onions were then caramelised between 6 and 7 am on Friday and the soup was finished off on a ‘just in time’ basis!
Main – by Alex (and Steve) – Coq au Vin with roast potatoes, green beans and carrot batons; with a vegetarian option:
The challenge was finding large enough pans to cook it all in so Sian called on her ‘friends in scouting’ and Liz Johnson of Brill scouts came to the rescue and delivered pots of all shapes and sizes in the run up to the event. There was also heavy negotiations by Vicky and Des to purchase the coq, and Parminters butchers (Haddenham) came up trumps by selling us their very high quality meat at a more low price so, we can only recommend you all go shop there from herein.
Sweet – by Vicky – Tarte Tatin with Pavlova as an alternative choice.
A relatively straight-forward, though time consuming, production that only required sharing of ovenproof frying pans between us all for Vicky to bake her tarte in.
Gatehangers is equipped for around 20 guests and we had 38 booked in so our final challenge was to find enough crockery, cutlery and glasses which we borrowed last minute from our fantastic village hall.
Finishing touches were also begged and borrowed. Isalda (my special French friend) came up trumps supplying the crowning glory flag and large Eiffel Tower and Joe (my son) handing over his very impressive Eiffel Tower collection for our table decoration.
The logistics of sitting 38 people together in the pub restaurant required several site visits and the agreed table lay out seemed to be a winner – until we tried to walk between the tables when people were sat down! Soup was passed along sportingly by our guests.
How they laughed at my role based, time plan spreadsheet but it got us through the night swimmingly – never again can anyone justifiably scoff at my pre-planning processes. The only thing I didn’t allow for was bread cutting – enter Deb from stage right and all was resolved (thanks Deb).
With Andy ‘trained’ over several evenings to serve at the bar, ably supported by super salesman Roger (and Sonia standing in last minute to help him out) we were ready to greet our guests.
The food was fabulous and the entertainment worked!
The music quiz was well planned and seemingly well executed until I discovered the ‘shuffle’ feature on my iPod was turned on and... aah well... it added to the humour of the evening! No-one seemed to mind that Annalise and I failed to find a winner as everyone had most of the songs but not in the same order on their answer sheet. David Crwys-Williams stood up to the mark and auctioned our ‘exclusive’ music quiz prize – Les and Lesley were so pleased to win it that they donated it to Gatehangers and I am thinking an annual quiz now has a suitable trophy.
French Connections went better – this game requiring guests to find a partner to the name found under their chair. It led to excitement, an opportunity to stretch and to meet new people before tackling the puds. I think, however, Michel is still hunting Albert! And Obelix is still wondering why Cleopatra’s needle did not welcome her with open arms!
I could go on and on about the evening for hours but I won’t. This bit says it all - donate what you think it was worth we said - £1,120 was the response.
Tres bien, c’est fantastique.
It all began when Andy Dale, landlord of our beloved Gatehangers Inn, Ashendon, suggested we Belles ‘take over the pub’ for a night. It captured our imagination. We had planned, anyway, to host a murder mystery based on the evening we all enjoyed for Chris Reeves 18th birthday (loosely based on Allo Allo). So it was decided we would change that plan and host a French night in Gatehangers.We quickly agreed that each of us would prepare one course and ‘The Menu’ became the entertaining subject of many cycle training rides and then, eventually, came the very enjoyable process of test cooking and team tasting.
Each course had its own mini drama.
Canapes – by Amber – a selection of vol au vents:Amber struggled to find vol au vent cases on Thursday night and plumped for DIY version after good advice from a lady in Asda. She was up until 2am trying to achieve this and failed. On Friday Waitrose came to the rescue and Alex made the mercy dash to collect them. The cases were then baked in Pollicott ovens various ready for Amber’s yummy fillings to be added last minute.
Soup – by Sian – French Onion with Gruyere and French bread.
Sian’s work and netball commitments meant the only time to chop onions (lots of them) was 10.30 pm on Thursday. Once again this became a team event as Alex, Steve and Andy all pitched in to get the job done by midnight. The onions were then caramelised between 6 and 7 am on Friday and the soup was finished off on a ‘just in time’ basis!
Main – by Alex (and Steve) – Coq au Vin with roast potatoes, green beans and carrot batons; with a vegetarian option:The challenge was finding large enough pans to cook it all in so Sian called on her ‘friends in scouting’ and Liz Johnson of Brill scouts came to the rescue and delivered pots of all shapes and sizes in the run up to the event. There was also heavy negotiations by Vicky and Des to purchase the coq, and Parminters butchers (Haddenham) came up trumps by selling us their very high quality meat at a more low price so, we can only recommend you all go shop there from herein.
Sweet – by Vicky – Tarte Tatin with Pavlova as an alternative choice.
A relatively straight-forward, though time consuming, production that only required sharing of ovenproof frying pans between us all for Vicky to bake her tarte in.
Gatehangers is equipped for around 20 guests and we had 38 booked in so our final challenge was to find enough crockery, cutlery and glasses which we borrowed last minute from our fantastic village hall.
Finishing touches were also begged and borrowed. Isalda (my special French friend) came up trumps supplying the crowning glory flag and large Eiffel Tower and Joe (my son) handing over his very impressive Eiffel Tower collection for our table decoration.
The logistics of sitting 38 people together in the pub restaurant required several site visits and the agreed table lay out seemed to be a winner – until we tried to walk between the tables when people were sat down! Soup was passed along sportingly by our guests. How they laughed at my role based, time plan spreadsheet but it got us through the night swimmingly – never again can anyone justifiably scoff at my pre-planning processes. The only thing I didn’t allow for was bread cutting – enter Deb from stage right and all was resolved (thanks Deb).
With Andy ‘trained’ over several evenings to serve at the bar, ably supported by super salesman Roger (and Sonia standing in last minute to help him out) we were ready to greet our guests.The food was fabulous and the entertainment worked!
The music quiz was well planned and seemingly well executed until I discovered the ‘shuffle’ feature on my iPod was turned on and... aah well... it added to the humour of the evening! No-one seemed to mind that Annalise and I failed to find a winner as everyone had most of the songs but not in the same order on their answer sheet. David Crwys-Williams stood up to the mark and auctioned our ‘exclusive’ music quiz prize – Les and Lesley were so pleased to win it that they donated it to Gatehangers and I am thinking an annual quiz now has a suitable trophy.  |
| Some strange liaisons |
I could go on and on about the evening for hours but I won’t. This bit says it all - donate what you think it was worth we said - £1,120 was the response.
Tres bien, c’est fantastique.
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