15 miles or so, round the back of West Wycombe.

Christmas and the New Year celebrations are just about behind us and I figure it's time to blow away the cobwebs with a short little run out in the cold. This is a route I have cycled before on my mountain bike, but as that is currently in need of repair I have dragged the pedelec out of the shed.

All the pictures link to larger versions with Google map locators

It's a straight forward 3 or 4 mile run from the centre of Wycombe heading West. I stayed to the published East/West cycle route round the back streets, but it is pretty safe to just head straight down the A40 once you're passed the new shopping centre.



The ride itself doesn't really get interesting until the A40/A4010 junction. Known locally as the Golden Ball the picture above shows the Dashwood Mausoleum on top of the hill, underneath this are the caves of the Hellfire club. The route passes this to the left through West Wycombe village and then turns right to go behind the hill itself.



A mile or so further along the road we come to a three way fork, the hill in the picture above is Bledlow Ridge and you really don't want to cycle up it, even with the assistance of an electric motor. Also in the picture is my trusty steed, I bought this as a replacement for the car on my daily commute. It's only a five mile round trip to work but on the way in there is a pretty deadly mile long hill to get up. I have been known to walk it but the bike has made the trip a joy. It's an Izip Gents Trailz ST with a 250watt motor and a lead acid battery, about the cheapest you can get it is also one of the heaviest pedelecs on the market at 37Kg. It only takes the slightest incline or headwind and I am extremely grateful for the extra power. It has a top speed of 15mph, but needs my help to get there, and claims a range of 10 to 15 miles. This trip was closer to 17 miles, but I hardly used the motor so there was plenty of charge left when I got back.



After a right turn to skirt the base of the ridge we are follow a little used single track lane through a well farmed valley, eventually going past the farm itself. All very pretty once the blummin' girt blue tarpaulin is hidden from view.



The road soon heads right over the hills ready to drop down onto the A4010, but my route heads onwards up the valley using what must be one of the smoothest bridleways I've ever come across. No chance of this being cut to a bog by horses hooves.



This is lovely riding, the country side opens soon opens up and I find myself stalked by a Red Kite. Unfortunately a few hundred yards after crossing another road the path turns into a muddy field margin, which I would struggle with on the bikes road tyres, so it's back to the road I just crossed and head for the main drag.



The second picture above shows a nice smooth bit of shared use footpath/cyclepath that should eventually become the NCR50, unfortunately it's not like this all the way. Also in the picture is one of my Christmas presents, thank you Emily, you gave me the horn...



Anyway, a couple of miles later and we're right back where we started. I also tried to track the route on my phone using the Nokia Sports Tracker but as usual the GPS fell over, so ignore the speeds and distances. I have shown the photos in their correct positions on the map, however.

So that's it, I'm back to cycling to work everyday then? Not until it blummin' warms up a bit i'm not...