Hayles Fruit Farm was a great campsite run by a very friendly lady who, I assume, was the matriach of operations, referring to 'her' cider. She kindly opened the shop so that I could buy a bottle - and it was very good. If you support locally produced food, the shop seemed large and well-stocked, so worth a proper visit; the site of Hailes Abbey (ruin) is also nearby, managed by English Heritage.
I managed to leave at 7 am crossing quickly from Gloucestershire to Worcestershire; more hills and some quite amazing villages on the way to Chipping Camden. Snowshill has a lavender farm and distillery, and the smell of the lavender growing in several great fields was amazing; it must be even more so when it's in flower.
Chipping Camden describes itself as one of the most 'beautiful tourist destinations in the UK' and I don't think they're overstating it; it really is. I imagine it must have been used as a film set for some Austen or Shakespearian thing, surely no film maker could let all those twisted chimneys, stone buildings with carved pillars and gargoyles pass. I think a relaxing weekend in a 14th century inn with exposed beams and open fires might be called for at some point...
Onwards East and over another border, back into Warwickshire and Shipston on Stour where I picked up bike route 5 (a mixture of bridleways and off-road hard path) to Banbury. Skirted the edge of Banbury around industrial estates and the train station. (National Bike Routes pick the quietest roads but not necessarily the most scenic). Crossed the M40 and was then in Northamptonshire! Although I'd only done just over 42 miles by that point (and had guessed that it would be about 100 miles from Hailes to home) it did feel like progress. But it was 1pm, so there was a long afternoon ahead.
The hills eased off somewhat and the mileage picked up from 7 miles in an hour to ten. I got into a zone, as happens when running and zipped through South Northants with barely a glance; Sulgrave, Weedon Lois, Wappenham, Abthorpe. Went around Towcester and past the racecourse onto Shutlanger (3pm, 62.7 miles) towards Stoke Bruerne. I took a photo of the signpost there, because this bit of road up to Blisworth represented an end of the loop in itself; I'd come up this road from the other direction on Day 5 heading West.
Blisworth was the proposed end for today and it was as well I was planning to continue, as 3:30 pm would otherwise have been an early stop (66 miles at that point). In the zone again, nodding to Quinton, Hackleton, Horton, then onto more familiar ground at Castle Ashby and Mears Ashby. There are some long roads around here too, and it was now 5pm, 83.5 miles down. It was starting to get painful and the average speed dropped below steady 10 mph at about this point. I'd done what was a normal day's riding, and the body was protesting at doing more. My hands were particularly sore from 13 days of either leaning on or pulling on the handlebars.
Onwards and upwards, literally now, continuing north to Little Harrowden, Orlingbury and Pytchley - a place I was only vaguely aware of as a name of one of Kettering's industrial estates, and having gone through it I'm afraid it really is that non-memorable. Over the bridge at the A43 and suddenly I was back in town, on familiar streets, with only a couple of miles to the front door. After a gloomy and dull day all day, the sun had come out, and it was good to be back. I would like to have done 100 miles (I like round figures) but wasn't going for a trip round the block to get the extra 4 miles in! Enough is enough. Job done.
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