The autumn colour seemed late this year, but last week on the Remembrance Day ride from Stockbridge to Winchester the autumn colours were in full display on Windmill Hill near Crawley so I thought we had left it a bit late for our ride to Burnham Beeches the following week. However, sixteen of us assembled at the Arboretum car park at Dorney Lake for the ride to Burnham Beeches - DavidB, Siobhan, JohnM, Rod, DavidC, Lin, Mick, Carol, Clive, Vanessa, JohnR, Helena, Keith, PeterH, Brian and me. Peter led the first group with Keith, JohnM, Vanessa, Clive, David B and Siobhan whilst the rest of us formed the second group, aiming for a more leisurely pace.

From the lake, the route took us on the NCN4 over the Thames on a footbridge beside Bray Marina then through Bray casting envious glances at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, the Fat Duck, and through the back streets at the edge of Maidenhead. We re-crossed the Thames on the A4 before taking the back roads through Taplow. The route skirted the edge of Burnham then into Burnham Beeches, owned by the Corporation of London, where we followed a loop around the park on the closed roads admiring the autumn colour.

Burnham Beeches - Group 2

The route then followed the Burnham Beeches Cycleway through Fulmer to Black Park where everyone met up again at the cafe beside the lake for lunch. This year we missed out the section through Langley Country Park and headed west on the roads to the northern edge of Slough to pick up the NCN461 traffic free cycleway that runs through Slough, under the M4 and over the Jubilee River to Eton. After crossing the Thames on Eton bridge, we all arrived in Windsor at the same time and stopped for photos outside the castle. From there it was back to the NCN4 again as it crossed the river again and ran beside the Thames, following it back to the cars at Dorney Lake - 29 miles and 238m ascent.

Windsor Castle