Diary - Day 31

So we were back on track by Wednesday lunchtime after a couple of days of rest and recuperation. All the time we were itching to get back on the bikes and finish, it was a little strange not to be cycling all day, but we were also very glad of the time off and besides which we needed two bikes and only one was functioning properly.

Being dropped off in Northampton we headed straight into Frog Island brewery for a long, rambling and informative chat with Bruce Littler before heading on towards the village of Litchbrough, about 10 miles further on, to see Roy Crutchley and Julie Hogg of Hoggleys Brewery.

This is me standing with Bruce and sporting 4 weeks worth of beard as well as a fairly burnt face despite the lack of sunlight:



Hoggleys turned out to be one of our favourite breweries. It was still in it's infancy as a business having been upgraded from a garden shed operation not too long before, but the beers were good (their mild being one of the best beers of the entire trip), Julie and Roy were very likeable people and the brewery itself in a small industrial area was well set-up. Good luck to them, I really hope things work out.

Here are Sam, Roy and Julie, all doing no work whatsoever on a weekday. Isn't life great?


We spent maybe 3 hours at Hoggleys, although I am not sure quite where the time went. We learnt a lot about their starting up and tried a few of the beers, then headed off towards Oxford well behind schedule already after only having cycled 10 miles. Our route took us through Silverstone, Buckingham, Marsh Gibbon and Islip and although there are more spectacular parts of the country than South Northamptonshire and North Oxfordshire it was a massive improvement on the last few days of cycling.

This is the entrance to Buckingham taken at a jaunty angle for extra effect:


We were trying to get a bit of a move on as we had a barbecue to attend at a friends house in Oxford. Cheers Chris. Despite the wind yet again being against us, having taken the hilarious move of finally swinging round to the South-West just as we began heading in that direction. 35 miles went by in under 3 hours and we arrived in Oxford at a little after 7pm. A number of people were there to ask about the trip and eat barbecued grub and we had an excellent evening eventually heading up towards my house in Headington for the night.


Day 31 review

Mileage - about 50ish.....
Breweries - 2
Pints - quite a few....
Glad to be back on the bikes? - Yep, although the headwind we could have done without.