Feb09
1st Feb 2009
3 comments posted in: Blog: LEJOG
After several flat rides recently it was time to take in some hills so we started from Andrew’s house in Middle Barton for this round trip to Buckingham and back.
There was a stiff easterly wind forecast so we planned to head east to start with. It was also cold with the odd snow flurry during the journey. We cycled through Duns Tew and North Aston to Somerton with the steep drop into and climb out of the Cherwell valley. Then on towards Ardley and Bucknell on quiet lanes. We planned to bypass north of Bicester but we went wrong somewhere and ended up on the A4095 and A4421 for a short while before diverting to Stratton Audley to get back on to quieter roads. Very small quiet lanes took us north to Tingewick where we used the cycletrack to cross the dual carriageway and into the village.
We continued north to Stow Park with it’s undulating roads and we joined the regional cycle route number 70 into Buckingham. We tried to find (unsuccessfully) somewhere to have a coffee but Buckingham is clearly not a Sunday town or expects many …
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Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on Mon, March, 30, 2009 - 04:04 PM
We’ll see if we can sort out the Bicester signage! I do know what you mean about NCN signage in urban areas.
The quiet lane situation in that part of West Oxfordshire is actually more difficult than it ought to be. There are so many big estates nearby (Blenheim, Cornbury, Ditchley) that it’s never easy to find a “way through”, without straying onto busy roads for a while. Our local cycling group is planning a route from Worcester to Oxford following the Cotswold Line, and thus far it has to stop at Charlbury because there simply isn’t a way through after that.
In this case, from Woodstock I guess you could go north on the old B4028 towards Tackley, then left on the B4027 and turn right at Wootton - but that’s a fair bit hillier than the existing route (Dornford Lane), and cars do tend to hare along the B4027, as part of the rat run to the A34. Maybe worth mapping as an alternative for road cyclists - some of the Sustrans maps do this for the muddiest or bumpiest sections - but for the less experienced rider Dornford Lane is better, I think.
cheers
Richard
(NCN Liaison Ranger, North Oxfordshire)