Exmoor Moorland Weekend

A 435 km loop

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Why this ride

Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. A 435 km loop that starts and ends near South Ockendon, about 8 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of in Great Bardfield, Scenic stretch in Amersham and Goring. near Puckeridge is the high point.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near South Ockendon fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. Food stop in Great Bardfield food
3. High point near Puckeridge pass

   This is where the road stops climbing.

4. Scenic stretch in Amersham scenic

   Scenic stretch in Amersham, about halfway.

5. Goring, on the way back swim

   The Goring Gap is one of the best bits of geography in southern England. Here the Thames, after wandering across the Oxfordshire plain, cuts straight through the chalk hills, with the Chilterns on one side and the North Wessex Downs on the other, and the valley narrows into a steep, wooded passage that feels almost Alpine by English standards. Goring is the village on the east bank, Streatley faces it on the west, and a bridge and a lock tie them together.

   It is a place of old routes. The Ridgeway, a track used for thousands of years and often called Britain's oldest road, crosses the Thames here, and so does the Thames Path. The village has quietly gathered famous residents: Oscar Wilde spent a summer here in the 1890s and borrowed the name Goring for a character in An Ideal Husband, and George Michael lived in the village and died here in 2016, after which fans left flowers by his house for months.

   The river is the reason for the stop. People do swim in the Thames around Goring and Streatley, mostly in the reaches upstream, where the water is slow and the banks are open, and on summer evenings you will see a few heads bobbing. Keep well away from the lock and weir, watch for boats, and know that after heavy rain the water can be fast and dirty. If you would rather stay dry, the riverside path between the bridge and the meadows is a lovely short walk.

   The roads around here are good and varied. Streatley Hill climbs steeply west out of the valley onto the downs with a fine view back over the river, and the roads beyond run across rolling open chalk country with long views and few hedges. On the Chiltern side, the lanes are narrower and twistier, sunk between banks under beech woods, with blind corners and the odd tractor. Weekends bring cyclists and walkers, and the village itself gets busy on fine Sundays.

   Goring has pubs, cafés and shops, and Pangbourne, a few kilometres downstream, is where Kenneth Grahame spent his last years, the author of The Wind in the Willows, a book that feels right on these banks. For bigger services, Wallingford is about eight kilometres north, a pleasant market town with fuel and supermarkets.

6. Photo stop near Witley photo

   Photo stop near Witley comes up 311 km in.

7. Near Enfield Town finish

   The world's first cash machine was installed at a Barclays branch in Enfield in June 1967, and a blue plaque marks the spot. Enfield has another claim to fame for riders: the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock made the Lee-Enfield rifle, and the town's name passed to the Royal Enfield motorcycle company, whose bikes are still built today, though now in India. The factory site has since been redeveloped into housing around the old buildings.

   This finish lies in the southern part of the borough, near Edmonton and Bush Hill Park, a district of terraced streets, parks and busy main roads. The Lee Valley, to the east, is a long green corridor of reservoirs, marshes and nature reserves, running north from London, and it is a surprising escape from the city.

   Forty Hall, to the north, is a Jacobean manor house with gardens and a park, and Trent Park, nearby, has woods and lakes. The New River, an artificial waterway built in the early seventeenth century to bring fresh water to London, winds through Enfield, and its banks are lined with paths.

   Coming back from Cambridge and the Fens, the final stretch follows the A10, a busy, fast road with speed cameras and heavy traffic. The roads into Enfield are congested at rush hour.

   Fuel is plentiful along the A10. If you have a Royal Enfield in the garage, it is hard not to smile at the thought that you have just ridden it home, more or less, to the place its name came from.

8. Back to Exmoor Moorland finish

   Orsett is a quiet Essex village with a surprising amount of history. Tilbury, with its Tudor fort and its docks, lies about six kilometres to the south, and Grays and the big Lakeside shopping centre are to the west.

   It is far from the Exmoor and Norfolk coast of the ride's name, and it is a cheerful, low-key final point. The roads here are fast and mostly straight, linking the A13, the M25 and the Dartford Crossing, and heavy goods traffic is constant. The Thames marshes give long views and large skies, and on a clear evening, the sunset over the water and the cranes of the docks has a harsh beauty. Orsett and its neighbours have narrow lanes between farmland that reward a slower pace, though surfaces are patchy.

   The area's history is tied to the river. Tilbury Fort was built by Henry VIII and used by Elizabeth I when she gave her famous speech to the troops in 1588 to face the Spanish Armada. In 1948 the ship Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, bringing one of the first large groups of Caribbean migrants to Britain. Orsett Fen, in the village, has a nature reserve with ponds and wildfowl, and the village itself retains its old church and green.

   For fuel, South Ockendon and Grays have stations and supermarkets, and the Lakeside area has a full range of chain restaurants. Orsett has a few pubs, a small shop and a village hall, and a pint at a village inn is a traditional way to relax. The riverside at Tilbury has a ferry to Gravesend and a pleasant walk along the sea wall.

   Take your time here, because the light over the estuary is worth an extra hour. It is an unpretentious place with a long history and a big sky.

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