October was a good month for cycling for me; it was mostly cool and dry without too much wind, and when it was windy the wind was mainly from the north-east to north-west which presented me with a headwind for the first half of each outing and a tailwind when I was tired and heading for home.
At the beginning of the month I decided that I needed to get out more and so set myself the goal of cycling 100 miles each week. This meant either getting out more frequently or going further each time I went out. I chose the latter.
Off the main roads there are some really nice quiet country lanes in Hampshire and up on the South Downs you can see for miles. On just about every ride I undertook this month I saw buzzards, red kites and the occassional kestrel flying overhead.
Just about all of my rides have been up the horrible hill that bisects Owslebury then continues on almost to the A272 before turning off and heading along Wheely Down road. I call these roads ‘the top of Hampshire’ because from up there you can see for miles.
St Andrews church in Owslebury, build in the 14th century, is a nice place to stop for a rest after climbing the hill past Marwell.
From Wheely Down road you can see for miles and you can look down on Hinton Ampner across the fields.
I decided to head for West Meon and beyond, stopping to take a few photos. It was getting late in the day and I was a long way from home so had to press on to get home before dark
I cycled past this beauty in West Meon. It looked like it has been dumped in the hedge.
I stopped in East Meon for a drink of water and a quick look around before heading off in the direction of Clanfield.
I was unsure of how to get home from East Meon and didn’t want to head back to West Meon which would have meant cycling along the busy A32. Instead I eventually found my way back home via Soberton, through Wickham and then home via Titchfield Lane. Good job I’d taken my phone so that I could use Maps to navigate my way through the lanes.
A view from the top of Soberton Heath which was a strenuous climb.
On the 21st October, Fiona and I cycled up the old disused railway line from Wickham to just outside Warnford. The weather was nice, sunny and no wind, but the temperature was only about 10C. As the track runs for miles through a heavily wooded area it did feel much colder than the 10C that we recorded. About 3 miles from from the end Fiona managed to get herself a rear tyre puncture. Thankfully we had remembered to bring the puncture repair kit along and so were able to fix it.
Between the 5th and 27th October I managed to cycle 337.74 miles (according to Garmin) with an elevation gain of 4,783 metres. I’d seen some really nice places along the way and only got soaked once. I hope to be able to equal or better these figures in November (not the soaking), but that is dependent on the weather and also on me buying some bicycle lights as the evenings are becoming noticeably darker.