Southam to Cross Hands Inn 04/06/04. 34.3 miles..

04/06/04
07.30 and I'm writing my diary while waiting for the tent to dry out, I dont want to pack it wet twice running. The bats here had a good night last night, the tent is covered with moths wings this morning.
I'm using a new type of charger for my mobile phone, it can charge up using batteries. I bought some from a filling station yesterday, but my phone was dead this morning. Need to buy Duracell.

Left at 0840, a good run for the first two hours, then, forgetting about the trailer and trying to ride up too steep a hill in too high a gear, I pulled a muscle in my right leg around the knee area.
Painful!!
I had to walk every now and then as it couldn't take much weight from the pedals. That seemed to calm it down a little, till I started riding again.
Keeping out of third gear now unless on the flat, middle 2nd is ok for now, and I can granny in 1-1 up hills I couldn't climb two days ago. A small success :)
I had an absolutely beautiful route today, the A423 Southam to Banbury is not too good, but Banbury is a nice town. I left it on the B4035....



USE THIS ROAD, It's magnificent.
Oxfordshire villages at their best, superb middle-England. Tiny old stone houses, rolling hills, the odd thatched house, 14th C pubs- beautiful.
Not too many shops, but they advertise at the side of the road if they are in the villages down the side roads.
??ford ferris (can't remember, its not on the map), turn left off the B4035, it's a good way through to Chipping Norton, mostly downhill :))
Friendly and positive people here, why can't all towns be like this?
I ran over my first snake today, an adder. It just "ran" out in front of me ... What could I do?
Left Chipping Norton on the A44, HILLS!
Mid afternoon I stopped at the top of one hill at a pub with a campsite in it's back yard. The junction with the A436,The Cross Hands Inn

I was the first camper to arrive here, 14:00. A clean site, but a touch expensive at £7 a night for just me and the bike. Old stone walls and heavy beams inside, it's a comfortable place with a nice Guinness. I got the corner seat in the bar, nobody else was in there, and sat looking along the bar and out of a picture window across the valley at the next hill, must be 20 miles, all in the sunshine. Later on the barman charged 2 people in a VW camper £9 for one night as against my 7, so I was a little annoyed at that. On the plus side the showers had no timer, so I took half an hour (and the same again in the morning) and got my money's worth. It was the first shower I had had for 2 days, and I needed it.....

A short day today, but I'll make it up with a big day tomorrow. Early start. I want to be leaving by 06:00 at the latest, I need to get past Chippenham. Hopefully I will reach Devises, then in 2 days from now I should see Stonehenge.
Easy going on Salisbury plain?

I need to check the mechanicals more frequently, I found the trailer draw bolts loose, LOOSE. The "locking" nuts were all the way undone! It's a good job the back-up nuts are nylockers.
Was mostly sunny today, I saw a 20 min shower, but got under an avenue of trees and walked for a while, spooky to be totally closed in, but nice to be dry.
First sunbathe today, 2 hours outside the tent resting my knee, ha, this is more like it.

miles today = 34.30
riding time = 3h 29min
Nutters = 1 ....me. No more riding with that weight up too steep a hill, get off and push!
pushed = a lot
Total mileage to date = 186.13