Travelling day 3: who put that there...!

Friday September 25, 2009, 54 miles (88 km) - Total so far: 122 miles (196 km)

Posted via email Fri Sep 25 11:16:01 2009 PDT

well I got here... And although the distance was about as much as Wednesday, this was a totally different day... It was the kind of day bike touring should be... Feeling good, the sun was shining, a few interesting experiences, and arriving at the destination....

So I left Henley at about 9.15, leaving the slightly strange hotel behind.... The woman running it lied to me about having a garage to lock my bike in (she had an alcove in the front garden with nothing to lock the bike to!) and then the breakfast was made in the basement and arrived in the breakfast room in a hand-pulled dummy waiter.... When was the last time you saw one of them working...!?? ...

About 2 miles outside Henley, the sign for "The Chilterns" worried me quite a bit.... I'd had a feeling that there were some hills around here, but couldn't find anything out about them on the internet last night..... Dammit....! .... Pressing on, the chilterns were actually not that bad... There was a long hill to steadily climb, but once over that, it didn't seem too bad.... It was a long way after that (And I'm sure after the chilterns) that the hills seemed to get worse... More rolling hills, but the road seemed to follow each of the tallest crests and lowest valleys perfectly...! I shall heretofore rename my satnav "The Hillfinder".... After all it did a perfect job today...!

Then near a village called 'Checkendon', I was riding along an saw something in the field opposite the road that didn't quite make sense... I honestly didn't quite believe my eyes when I first saw it... I was thinking that it was a trick of the light or something...!... what would you think...?.. this was sitting in a corner of a field in the middle of nowhere... 

I've since found out that it's a sculpture by an artist called John Buckley... more information can be found here

Coming down into Swindon was actually really quite pleasant... They have bike lanes here... Actual infrastructure that means that you can use a bike here without worrying about getting mown down by the local earth moving trucks...!.... And I even tackled the magic roundabout on my bike....!... and this was not something that I expected to see on my satnav...

So I'm here now... Feeling quite tired, especially after a shower... But glad that I've made it this far... I'll post again in a few days about my plans to get home, though I can see the train monster sitting on my shoulder screaming in my ear...!... I might have to appease him for the journey home....!

This is the bike that got me here... along with the heavy bags...!