The Willy Warmer 200 - Jan 2011

Hooraahh!! No rain! But that is because we got sleet instead.

It may not have been that bad, but for somebody who wears glasses, rain or sleet is twice as bad as for those who don't wear glasses. First you have the rain in itself, then you have the droplets settling on your lenses. So you already have double the dose there. It may have stopped raining hours ago, but the spectacles wearer doesn't realise this until you are so fed up, you go to shelter in a bus stop. As you sit down and clean your glasses, you look up ... hear nothing, see dead flat puddles without ripples .... Oh! Typical, its just stopped raining! Every time, every time, you go and take a break from the rain it just stops! In reality, you've experienced not only double the dose, but double the dose in time also!

The trouble with sleet also, is the temperature of course. Its going to be around freezing right? So my tweeting got a bit weird. It became a little cryptic, SOS like. I didn't bother with capitals anymore. With shivering hands, you do a staccato on the keypad. Hitting the capitalisation button just twice is not easy. After trying to get it right and hitting that key probably and involuntary about 7 times, I thought nobody would care about capitals anyway. Anything that needed extra key strokes got left out, that is why the mileage was dropped also. So next time you see a: "halfway hungerford", please ready: "Freezing cold, hungry, can't see, don't ask, probably in Hungerford, probably around halfway ... I think".

A huge thanks to Anton. We cycled the whole way around together. We took turns to shout hole! pothole! hole left! hole right! hole middle! manhole! There were potholes left, right and centre. Centre?

We had some excellent views of kites. There were some low flying ones, but the one hunched on an antenna, calling to another, was unusual.

I did stop to take a picture of pheasants and partridges on the back of a truck. Anton, as a vegetarian, was appalled. There were many shoots going on, it is a little unnerving to hear those gun shots around you.

We said a quick hello to Iddu at the Hungerford Tutti Pole (nobody calls it that), and had a quick snack outside the bakery. That must be where I did the in-voluntary staccato in C minor.

It is really nice to now know so many people, compared with 3 years ago. And the world of audax is blurring with FNRttC, with Tim, Andrij and Pavel present.

This map gives an idea of the route: Chalfont St Peter, Henley, Pangbourne, Lambourne, Hungerford, Kingsclere, Risely, Winnersh, Chalfont St Peter

Double click to enlarge

A few pictures are on the slideshow till the next ride or here:Clicky