Hampshire ↑ all posts

I left Oxford after a leisurely lunch with Matt, Gabs (thanks for the pizza!), and Nodoka, out in their garden enjoying the long awaited sunshine. It’s hard to leave a place filled with friends, and comfort, and familiarity, but I couldn’t hang around forever and so I got on the road with some sadness and headed past the Harcourt Arboretum and on towards Reading. I’d cycled the other way up this road a couple of years ago when I first bought my bike, from Reading to Oxford, and it felt much easier this time around. It might be improved fitness from two weeks on the road, or it might be mainly downhill going south. Hard to tell.

The rolling Oxfordshire countryside became the rolling wooded hills of Hampshire, then Surrey, then Hampshire again as I approached my aunty and uncle’s house near Grayshott. I was welcomed by Maggie, Steve, and the second over-excited dog of the trip, Roxy. Fish pie, plenty of beer, and being with family again for the first time since Edinburgh made for a lovely relaxing evening.