It is Tuesday and we are still aching from Saturday’s ride to Didcot via Radley and Abingdon.  It was not so much the distance that was the problem but more the uneven road surfaces shaking our bones to pieces (and a certain amount of saddle related discomfort).

Our route (mostly following the NCN 5) took us down the Thames Path for part of the way and the first section was quite busy with families, dog walkers and runners.  This was good for improving our manoeuvring skills but also fairly stressful.  It was not long however before the people disappeared and water became our biggest foe.  The first flooded section was quite shallow and cycling through an inch of water is quite good fun.  The second flooded section was deeper, longer and unfortunately we both decided to detour off the path into deep mud.  Not the best move.  Now we had wet, muddy, feet.

The path then took us away from the river toward Radley and things started to look up.  We stopped for a banana at Radley Churchyard.  The sun was shining and our cold, wet, feet didn’t bother us so much.

I got those…

…not so happy feet

From here to Abingdon the route was mostly on the road.  A welcome change from bumpy gravel tracks and cattle grids.  Just outside of Abingdon (back on another traffic free part of the Cycle Network) we encountered another flooded path.  This looked deeper than the other section and as the path curved away from us it appeared to go on forever.  Some cyclists ahead of us decided not to brave the water and at this point we were very tempted to turn back.  Just as we were dithering a couple of runners came along and refusing to be defeated by a bit of water (“let’s just put our shoes in the wash when we get back”) ran on through.  They helpfully called back to us that it didn’t in fact go on forever and was dry up ahead.  We continued on.  Feet now even wetter than before.

There’s a path here somewhere

Soon we could see Didcot Power Station up ahead.  One more wrong turn to go and we would be there.  This wrong turn was down a path that appeared to comprise mostly of water filled pot holes the size of craters finally becoming impassable with thick mud.  We turned back.

Thinking it was part of the cycle network we were going to write (to someone – not sure who) and complain about the state of the path before realising that the route actually continued on smooth tarmac to Didcot.  A few more turns and we were there.  Now we just had to go home!