RG4

Caversham, Sonning, Emmer Green and the hills behind

North of the water the ground rises quickly. Caversham is town at the bottom and single-track lane by the time you reach the top.

The bridges are the pinch point — traffic queues on both, and a car stopped on one causes a problem out of all proportion to a flat tyre. Caversham Heights and Emmer Green climb steeply with sharp kerb returns on the bends. Above that, Kidmore End, Chazey Heath, Gallowstree Common and Mapledurham are chalk-and-flint lanes with high banks, blind crests and no lighting; flint cuts are the standard damage and none of them are repairable. Sonning and Play Hatch are river-level, narrow, and the road floods at the edges most winters.

Stopped on a bridge or a blind crest: hazards on, everyone out and behind a barrier, then ring. That is the urgent kind of call.