The best cycling routes around Barkham

After riding the riverside trail along the Loddon, the Waggon & Horses pub is a perfect place for a well-earned break. The pub offers a spacious back garden right beside the river weirs, ideal for stretching your legs, parking your bike, and enjoying some riverside relaxation. Cyclists will appreciate the easy access from the path, plenty of seating, and a safe area to leave bikes while you grab a drink or snack. The garden features a large, active aviary, adding a lively touch to the stop, and the riverside location provides views of weirs, ducks, and occasional fish, giving a calming backdrop to your rest. The pub serves hearty food and drinks, making it an excellent choice for lunch, a snack, or just a coffee break mid-ride. Its position at the end of this trail section also makes it a natural checkpoint or turnaround spot before heading back along the Loddon paths.

The Straight Mile near Wokingham is a quiet, flat, and almost perfectly straight country road that’s ideal for holding a steady pace or testing your speed. Surrounded by open fields and low traffic, it’s a scenic and rider-friendly stretch that features in popular local routes like the Wokingham Bikeathon.

Rolling through Dinton Pastures in the evening is fast, quiet, and just eerie enough to keep you sharp. The gravel trails run smooth, looping through open glades and shadowy patches where the bats skim low and the bugs feel unusually organised. Signs still warn: “No faster than a jogger.” If we’re still honoring old world metrics, that’s Daniel Komen’s 2 mile world record from 1997—about 24 km/h (15 mph). Back when things were still… consistent. Whether the rule’s enforced is unclear, but if the rangers are still around and still armed like they were during the “wildlife management years,” best keep it respectful. You don’t want to find out what counts as a pest now. Bring good lights, stay smooth on the corners, and be aware: things move in the treeline. Usually ducks. Occasionally something else. Either way-yield with confidence. Ride safe. Keep your exits in mind. And remember: dusk is when the place starts to remember

The lake at Dinton Pastures is visitable on a circuit if you’re scavenging for evening peace and quiet. It’s a decent spot: open water views, good sightlines, and the option to commandeer a plastic boat or pedalo if you need to make a quick exit across the lake. Locals say the islands are off-limits. Makes you wonder what’s really out there. The pontoon looks inviting, but stepping on it feels… wrong. Like there might be a claymore wired just past the “no entry” sign. Still, the view over the lake as the sun drops is solid. Serene, even. Main hazard here isn’t infected—it’s wildfowl. Geese, ducks, maybe mutant swans. Droppings everywhere. Biohazard levels questionable. Footwear strongly advised. Some paths could do with a daily pressure wash—or a visit from a hazmat team. Still, if you’re passing through and need a place to breathe, this spot does the job. Just keep your back to the water. And don’t feed the birds.

Although their origins often date back more than a century – many were erected after the First World War (1914 to 1918) – they are by no means merely relics of a bygone era. The message of the almost ubiquitous "war memorials," which still commemorate the victims of war and tyranny in villages and towns, remains relevant. The specific design of the monuments varies from place to place, despite certain similar basic patterns. But they all share the urgent appeal to remind us – anew each generation – of the necessity of preserving peace.

However, such a war memorial, which one often encounters on the road, regardless of nationality, language and name, is always a testimony - still significant and relevant today - to the horror of war and tyranny. They all have two essential functions, and this is renewed for each generation: -1- Commemorate and remember the victims -2- Remind people to keep the peace

A much needed amenity at (the recently, famously, redesigned) California Crossroads. Open: Monday-Sunday 07:30-22:30.

Great coffee shop/stop attached to the Greyhound pub in Finchampstead. Bacon roll £4.50, bacon& egg roll £4.75, bacon, sausage & black pudding roll £6.00. Open 08:30-16:00 Monday-Sunday.. We got "elevenses", sweet vermouth and a bit of cake. https://goswellandbirds.co.uk/