Swinley currently

Is it still a marsh or worth a cheeky ride tomorrow after work??

J

Marsh

looked bone dry on the bits we walked on Sunday, they were cheeky but well used bits though, no idea what the main MTB bit is like.

Lots is closed due to Harry Potter filming, lots of the rest is chewed up beyond belief (mostly the usual widening of trails due to folk avoiding puddles 🙄 ). Do it a favour and leave it alone for a while

thanks all.

Lots is closed due to Harry Potter filming

Nothing shut this Sat when I was there, think they've gone now, all the alu track has gone as well

Yep forest is wizard free. Was still wet yesterday but drying fast. A lot of the big puddles are now mud baths though so ironicaly although its drying is quite muddy in fact bike was the worst its been all winter. Black Gloop with pine needles thrown in for good measure.

Black Gloop with pine needles thrown in for good measure.

Give it a few thousand years and you'll have oil then.

With planning like that, you should start an empire………

(And Goodwins law has been invoked)

Can't see how we'll get onto Hitler or Nazis from mud and oil.
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Damn it, clever that Goodwin chap!

The thousand year bit………

On a related note, I cycled past what looked like bunkers on the banks of the Thames whilst out riding last weekend, anyone know if the germans were planning on sailing up the Thames, or were they somethign else? About 6 of them, in a row, all identical in a line of trees. Here

EDIT: damit cant get the link to work, Cycling form Caversham to Pangbourne, just as you pass some houses/farm on the left before you turn right and go up the bridleway (wide unmade road) up into the woods, near hardwick house.

there's a Bunker over the back of Swinley and Tank traps! maybe 1 ball had his eye on the oil?

Thisisnotaspoon – where abouts is that? Is it along the warren or further on closer to mapple durham?

I ride that route regularily and haven't come across them

http://www.hungerfordvirtualmuseum.co.uk/Bastions_of_Berkshire.pdf

here http://www.multimap.com/s/zZ1A6T4J

They're in the treeline, just a series of what look like doors sunken into the tree roots.

No idea if its military or not, doesn't have a view of anything but the road, but I guess it could be for storing something or maybe the view was different 90 years ago.

Just got back, not too bad at all.

thisisnotaspoon – we ride past those bunkers regularly. I think they're WW2 air raid shelters for the staff/occupants of Hardwick House. There's five of them iirc – useful for sheltering in if it's pouring down with rain and you want to stop for a snack. Have you been in them? There's one main room, then a smaller one. They have the bomb-blast proof offset doors as well.

thisisnotaspoon – think crispedwheel has got it.
http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=4579