No cycling in Omdurman

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I missed the ride a couple of weeks ago as duty as honour took me to Khartoum to continue some strategy work I’m doing out there for a big Food and Agriculture organisation. So whilst the others were peddling through the damp streets of Berkshire, I thought I’d wander down and experience the intoxicating sights and sounds of Omdurman Market with its labyrinth of narrow, winding paths crowded with open-air shops selling everything from blood stained Victorian pith helmets to traditional Sudanese perfume (Khumra). For those of you interested in such things, the Battle of Omdurman (1898) at which Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, defeated the Mahdist army, was the last time the British Army ever used cavalry in anger.

Anyway back to cycling, I understand Graham, who turned up for the ride looking like an old woman with a head scarf, was very quickly lost to illness after just a couple of miles, Chris got several punctures and had to be rescued, leaving Harley and friend Steve to complete a 56 mile circuit which took them down to Kingsclere, onto Newbury which apparently included a very leisurely stop for coffee and several pastries, Beedon Common and back home. 

Last weekend was back to business as usual, more or less. Graham’s Son Henry was playing in a rugby tournament in Devon so Graham thought he’d peddle down to Bideford to join the family, an ambitious 160 mile trip. He reports that it was all going very well until the heavens opened reducing his vital scrap of map to a small piece of pulp. Let down by his usual homing instinct, Graham meandered off towards Exmoore from where he had to be rescued by his wife some hours later. Looking on the bright side, Henry did him very proud, I understand.

Chris, Harley and I planned a slightly less ambitious 130 miler taking in 5 counties. Leaving Streatley at 05:30 on Sunday morning we headed North through Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire visiting the hill top village of Brill which is known for having one of the earliest (1685ish) and best preserved examples of a post mill (the earliest type of European windmill) in the UK. Onto Northamptonshire where we paid a quick visit to my slightly startled brother and his wife in Croughton before stopping for breakfast at Cincinnati Joe’s Diner in the market square of the sleepy market town of Brackley. Now we are talking a nine out of ten breakfast here, not a rating we give lightly – highly recommended if you are passing that way.

Heading South East from Brackley there are some seriously good cycling lanes as you head towards Aylesbury via Steeple Clayton and Whitchurch; smooth straight and flat through some lovely countryside. Our route took us out towards Tring and the 5^th county of the day Hertfordshire, before turning for home via Princes Risborough and Chinnor where we hooked up with Steve for the last 25 miles to home.

I must say having fallen off an airoplane from Africa the day before, I was certainly feeling pretty knackered by this stage and if we hadn’t stopped for a major investment in Mars bars at the petrol station in Benson, I have a suspicion my legs would have stopped going round. Anyway the ride was just over 130 miles at a none too shabby 16.4 mph.

The bike boxes for transporting our bikes to Venice and then back from Sicily to the UK arrived this week, so I guess its time to start some serious planning....