North from Oxford now. Keeping east of the industrial cities and the hills. Keeping west of the coast Keeping off of the main roads and, as much as possible, off of dirt tracks. The challenge is to find a straight, narrow, paved, well-signed, light-trafficked, northward-heading one. The Sustrans routes work well at times. Otherwise we seek the ideal path on an Ordinance Survey map and hope to not get lost. Most of the time we don't More hills at first and wind, then rain. Downpour in Market Harborough, so we duck into the covered public market for a lunch of jacket potatoes with beans and cheese. Ordinary cheese to them, good strong white cheddar to us. Asking people in town for directions to the bike route. "Where are you headed?" "John O'Groats; we've come from Land's
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