Tuesday 8th April - Wallingford to De Vere Hotel, Eversley

Today we started in sunshine :-)

Great route through some beautiful quiet lanes, almost all the way to Reading. Met a fellow cycle tourist out preparing for his own tour in Brittany (on Garson's Hill he'd counted 40 pot holes in a one mile section - at least we have each other to talk to in case we're ever bored!).

Reading itself proved to be a bit of a hell-hole on the friendly cycling front but did manage to serve a purpose with supply of a knee support and advanced wine purchase for the evening ahead. Bright and breezy lunchtime stop in Green Park and, the sun stayed with us for the rest of the day.

The change from recent weather left us breaking one of our tentative rules; Thatcher's Gold at the George and Dragon (good to get such precedents out of the way early though).

Our overnight was in a hotel as, at only £13 more than the most obvious campsite, it would've been rude not to!

Our room was in a small Lodge; it may well be the first and last time that we deliver all our luggage to a bedroom piece by piece through a ground floor window.