Pootler

  GPX File   Tadpole Bridge & Golden Ridge  This is a pleasant, peaceful and undemanding route. Starting from Oxford Station, there is a short climb out of the town and the road into and out of Oxford is busy. Thereafter it is ride along mostly minor roads in flat, arable countryside in the Thames and Windrush valleys. It visits the market towns of Eynsham and Witney before turning south across the flat clay farming landscape of the Thames Valley, to cross the river at Tadpole Bridge. From there is a climb of around 35m onto the Golden Ridge, which separates the modern Thames Valley from the Vale of the White Horse and which you follow back towards Oxford. Zooming In Highlights are: The flat vistas and wide skies of the Thames Valley. Historic and handsome Eynsham and Witney. The villages and views across the Valley from the Golden Ridge Stanton Harcourt and the Devil’s Quoits, now ‘restored’ A diverse collection of heroes and villains. The word ‘div...

GPX File of the Route          Nobs & Yobs GPX             This route mostly uses minor roads to tour the Eastern Cotswolds, an area lived in and loved by well-to-do ‘nobs and yobs’.  It takes in some lovely countryside, chocolate box villages, sights to see and some political and celebrity gossip.  It starts from Charlbury on the River Evenlode and runs northwards through higher ground to Chipping Norton before crossing a river valley to visit the famous Rollright Stones. From there it continues through Hook Norton, home of the eponymous brewery, and Great Tew, the epicentre of the rural celebrity wonderland. From there, it turns south and generally downwards, back through Stonesfield and along the Evenlode Valley to return to Charlbury. The hills are numerous but not steep. There is one small but irritating stretch of off-road. The area has deep history. Stone Age people left their 'barrow' graves all over ...

GPX File of the route:   Highs & Lows of Cherwell This is a varied but undemanding ride around the fringes of the Cotswolds in Northern Oxfordshire. It leaves Bicester using the cycle path to the South of the A41 then crosses that road to follow the Roman ‘Akeman Street’ to its conclusion. The route then heads north for 10 miles across higher ground to cross the River Cherwell at Somerton. You then climb around 200 ft, into the Eastern foothills of the Cotswolds and follow a scenic ridge road for a few miles before turning south towards Islip and the flat and empty marshland of Otmoor.  Outside of Bicester, the ride uses minor and usually well-maintained roads. There are no off road sections. The living is easy, the fish are jumping etc. Zooming In Highlights are: Laughing at the ersatz ‘consumer paradise’ of Bicester Shopping Village. Enjoying the genuine character of the Cotswold stone villages, Lower Heyford, Somerton, Dun's Tew, Islip a...