Day 2. Bray to Kintbury

Bray to Kintbury 79 km

We left Bray after a delicious breakfast provided by Patsy. We passed through hill and dale forests along the Kennet-Avon Canal all the way to Kintbury.

From Bray today with beautiful cycling conditions. The route started off on a busy road but turned off onto a shared dirt footpath through beautiful forests and onto a country lane and into Maidenhead where we popped into a Lidl to stock up on something for lunch. Not a good choice as LIDL sells in bulk. 

It was challenging finding our way out of Maidenhead but finally after three attempts we saw the signage for Route 2 which was well sign posted for the rest of the way. We wound our way through suburbia and onto Cox Green then we turned onto a gravel path that took us on the rough gravel route through beautiful forests and up quite a steep hill and then down through High Wycombe. This is part of the Chiltern Way. We were rewarded with beautiful views over the English countryside.

We made our way to Sonning where we waved farewell to the Thames River. Not far from Sonning Lock we joined the cycle path along the tow path next to the Kennet-Avon Canal.The canalizations of these two rivers date back from 1727. Ships were only able to navigate all the way from Reading to Bristol sixty years later. The canal was only actively used for thirty years before the opening of the Great Western Railroad. It then fell into disrepair for most of its course until it was fully restored in 1990.

The going was slow along the 44 km that we cycled on the tow path today. The towpath was gravel most of the way with short grass sections and in places it turned into single track. The section between Reading and Newbury had gates or barriers with three sections where we had to unpack the bikes and lift them over. Gosh we had forgotten how heavy steel bikes are!!

Most of the way there were longboats moored alongside the canal and at Woolhampton it looked like a city of longboats. Quite a few along the way were derelict and looked abandoned. As we approached Newbury we saw an increasing number of longboats navigating up and down the canal.

We were surprised at how easily we got through Reading on the towpath. It is a beautiful town with a large number of fast food places on either side of the canal. It does not sound beautiful but they have managed to make it look quite attractive.

Lunch was along the canal close to the Cunning Man Pub 8 km about of Reading.

Then on to  Addermaston another quaint waterside village, clearly a hit with the boat people. West Thatcham was the last village we passed through before the route took us into Newbury which has a well known race course on the outskirts.  Kintbury was a few kilometers further on where we are staying in a very comfortable Annex 500 m out of the Centre of town. Dinner was good old pub fare - fish and chips at the Blue Ball which was delicious.