Skylarks call out a cascading trill as I pedal between the pink and white hawthorn blossoms that make my path look like a May Day parade. I\u2019m on the outskirts of Oxford, a city I thought I knew well, yet as I follow the National Cycle Route 57 on the e-bike I\u2019d picked up in Jericho, it feels as though I\u2019ve discovered a secret passageway.<\/p>\n
This year the Camping and Caravanning Club<\/a> (CCC) turns 125 \u2013 and I\u2019m celebrating with a 60-mile cycling and camping trip, leaving from the city where the organisation was born and heading to Walton-on-Thames to stay at one of the oldest campsites in the CCC network.<\/p>\n The CCC began life as the Association of Cycle Campers before becoming the club it is today. It all started when founder Thomas Hiram Holding, already a keen camper, was visiting his friend Rev EC Pitt-Johnson\u2019s Oxford home in 1901 and they decided there was enough demand and interest in the hobby to form a club. They elected each other president and secretary respectively and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n Thomas Hiram Holding, founder of the Camping and Caravanning Club. Photograph: CCC archive<\/p>\n Back then, Holding had a \u201csafety cycle\u201d \u2013 not dissimilar to a modern-day bike, which replaced the tricky-to-master penny farthing. He proudly invented much camping gear, too, from early lightweight tents and folding poles to cycle touring bags. \u201cHolding understood the health and wellbeing benefits people gained from camping,\u201d explains Jo Cartwright, archivist at the CCC, when I tell her my e-bike plan, \u201cso I think he would\u2019ve embraced any new form of transport.\u201d<\/p>\n While all-singing, all-dancing motorhomes and caravans are ubiquitous these days, and along with pre-pitched glamping options are squeezing the space left for regular campers, the CCC assure me that humble tents are very much still welcomed on its sites. So with mine firmly stowed on my e-bike, I set off, deciding to break my journey with an overnight stop at Bella Vista Camping<\/a> in Radnage, a family-run club site that sits on the Chiltern Cycleway.<\/p>\n double quotation markI read The Campers Handbook, published in 1908, and chuckle at the correct attire for female cycle campers, including a skirt that finishes three inches off the ground<\/p>\n Quiet roads lead me east from Oxford toward Wheatley and Thame, where I stop at the Old Fisherman<\/a> to grab a sandwich and coffee, before continuing on the Phoenix Trail (part of Route 57), its straight lines a nod to its former life as the disused railway track to Princes Risborough. Red kites replace skylarks as I glide on the easy track away from any road traffic, passing the old station building at Bledlow and going under the former railway bridge and past the abandoned platform where Towersey Halt stop, closed since 1963, would have been.<\/p>\n Before he started the Association of Cycle Campers, Holding\u2019s method of camping \u2013 after a childhood wagon trek on the prairies of North America had him hooked \u2013 was by canoe in Ireland. That was until a friend of his in England announced that he and his wife were planning to spend a week camping by tandem bike in Britain, and asked him to come to help with attaching his kit to the frame \u2013 after which he wrote, \u201cWe succeeded,\u201d and declared in his book, Cycle and Camp, published in 1897, \u201cThere was something in it.\u201d<\/p>\n The writer cycling beside the Thames. Photograph: Phoebe Smith<\/p>\n While more people arrive in motorhomes than by bike these days, I\u2019m pleased to see that Bella Vista Camping still has a huge field for tents, next to a paddock of Soay sheep and alpacas, and there are hot showers and proper toilets in a big mess tent.<\/p>\n After dinner at the Crown Pub<\/a>, just a five-minute walk away, and a quiet night\u2019s sleep while my bike battery charged, I am ready for the next part of my cycle tour to Walton-on-Thames. Opened in 1913, the Walton CCC campsite was described in a Golden Jubilee Souvenir booklet from 1963 as a place full of \u201chomemade tents, bamboo poles, hurricane lamps and wood fires\u201d.<\/p>\n Curious at what I\u2019d encounter now, I leave the highs of the Chilterns and Route 57 to bear south on country lanes that skirt the edge of High Wycombe, through the busy streets of the Thames-side towns of Marlow and Cookham, and on narrow cycle paths between Maidenhead and Eton. When I stop for lunch at the Crocus cafe in Dorney, I\u2019m amazed at how curious people are about my set-up. I feel a little like Holding, showcasing another way of holidaying in Britain.<\/p>\n Windsor Great Park is an unexpected highlight \u2013 its easy roads contrasting starkly with the quite hairy gravel tracks I descend into Egham. But then designated bike lanes through Staines and Chertsey see me ticking off my remaining miles with ease.<\/p>\n A final treat is a ferry crossing over the Thames at Shepperton to Weybridge \u2013 fitting given that the very first campsite in the CCC network used to sit on one of the islands here (it closed in 1909).<\/p>\n double quotation markI\u2019m amazed at how curious people are about my set-up. I feel a little like Thomas Hiram Holding, showcasing another way of holidaying in Britain<\/p>\n Given that the Walton campsite has no facilities, it\u2019s primarily frequented by motorhomes and caravans that have their own chemical toilets. I\u2019ve brought my own eco-friendly option, though, in the form of a Poopaloo<\/a> dry-powder toilet. My pitch was next to a small hut filled with sepia photographs of tents from 100 years ago.<\/p>\n That night I read Holding\u2019s The Campers Handbook, published in 1908, and chuckle at the description of the correct attire for female cycle campers including a skirt \u201cthat finishes three inches off the ground, with no slippery lining to avoid catching on the knickerbockers\u201d.<\/p>\n The writer swaps land for water in Walton-on-Thames. Photograph: Phoebe Smith<\/p>\n The next day, without a knickerbocker (or skirt) in sight, I undertake one of Holding\u2019s favoured activities: canoeing. Swapping pedals for oars, thanks to owner Andy of Hampton Court Paddle Sports<\/a>, which is located just a 10-minute (3-mile) cycle from my tent, I spend most of the day on the water, sightseeing at a slow pace, stopping for falafel at Mezzet Box<\/a> (beats the fried herring and boiled trout of Holding\u2019s day), and ending with a drink at the Anglers<\/a>, built on these banks in 1870, my canoe tied up beside my table.<\/p>\n Things have undoubtedly changed for campers over the past 125 years. The tents \u2013 A-frames and \u201cwigwams\u201d made of silk \u2013 have been swapped for nylon tunnels with inflatable poles, campervans have overtaken bicycles, and even, at Walton, the Thames itself has been rerouted so that it no longer sweeps by the pitches. But not all change is bad. Back then, strict gender rules meant that, as a lone woman, I wouldn\u2019t have been permitted to do this trip, never mind in leggings. And an e-bike made the whole experience (and hills) much more enjoyable.<\/p>\n Holding called cycle camping a \u201cpower\u201d that helped popularise camping \u2013 and the CCC\u2019s membership reflects that, having grown from its initial 150 to more than 300,000 households. And though camping using a bicycle is now a minority pursuit, after my weekend tracing old routes and visiting the first campsite, I like to think that within the secret passageways of towns and cities, there are those of us who realise that the best journeys are still powered by pedals and curiosity.
eBike hire was provided by Bainton Bikes<\/a> in Oxford (e-bikes from \u00a365 for 3 days). A pitch was given by Bella Vista Radnage (from \u00a319 a night) and Walton-on-Thames campsite (from \u00a320 for two nights members, \u00a335 non-members). Annual CCC membership from \u00a356.95<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skylarks call out a cascading trill as I pedal between the pink and white hawthorn blossoms that make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-742370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}