Unusually, or maybe not for September, which is often quite nice, the weather was predicted to be good again at the weekend, and as my latest acquisition had arrived in the week it seemed a shame not to get out and give it a trial. Knowing that we've probably not got many more warm days or nights left this year, I'd remortgaged the house, tried to sell "The Emma" and splashed out in the week on a new Sleeping mat. Allegedly this was going to be the end of cold nights and offer the best sleeping experience ever, although that's not hard compared to a good old foam roll mat, which is all the military think you will ever need, but we shall see and I'm not holding my breath! I'd come up with what I hoped would be a nice little route for a Friday night and Saturday cycling mini adventure, so I was out of work like the proverbial whatsit through a goose, bike already packed and on the road for 17:00 on a glorious early autumn evening. Plodding along at a steady pace, stopping only to sort out a puncture (unusually the inner tube split along the join), grab a brew and eat my tea, (left over pasta from the night before if you must know). All of which, helpfully, coincided nicely with putting on a few more layers and sitting out the bit of twilight that I always think is the most hazardous "Sorry mate I didn't see you with your multiple lights and bright clothes in the not quite dark", the evening turned into a beautiful, still and clear night. As it gets dark, the world is transformed around you, the road narrows to the area you can see in your lights, you begin to hear the calls of the owl's replacing the daytime birds, and become aware of the rustle of other unseen creatures in the hedgerows. You soon notice the considerable temperature difference between the high and low ground and feel the chilled air coming from rivers and streams, all things you would never notice from a car, cocooned inside your warm sphere with the radio on and the engine noise drowning out the passing world. Pushing on until about 22:00 I found an out of the way spot to spend the night and with the new Sleeping mat inflated and waiting to welcome me, was tucked up in my Bivvy by 23:00. To say it was a beautiful night though would be an understatement, the moon was full and with a clear sky lit the world in a beautiful pale light, silhouetting the trees against the sky and casting long dark shadows. laying watching the stars, snug in my sleeping bag, I would struggle to think of somewhere I would rather be, better in my opinion that the finest hotels. Up again at first light and on my way again soon after, there was a definite chill in the air, half an hour or so on the road to warm up and a breakfast of porridge by the roadside set me up well for the push back home though. Slowly loosing the layers as the morning progressed I was soon back to shorts and a T shirt, cruising sedately through the countryside, breathing in the smells of the approaching autumn and admiring the slowly changing colours of the trees, for an uneventful ride towards home. I paused for a while towards the top of the Devils Punch Bowl to chat with a delightful fellow Audaxer. You can normally tell the long distance cyclists, they're the ones that look like tramps on a bike, with a mix of well worn and heavily faded high end kit, matched with things from the pound shop. Probably riding a bike from a manufacturer that no one else will ever have heard of, fitted with a totally random set of bits (Aero bars on your touring bike sir?). Everything though will be focused on comfort and will have been worked out during many long miles sat on their leather saddle. If you ask where they are off too, you'll probably get a non committal answer that could mean anything from, I'm just off to the shops (despite the fact the nearest shops are 30 miles away) to I'm just back from riding around the world. Despite stopping talking, stopping for brews, stopping to pick blackberries, stopping for biscuits, stopping to look at random stuff and just stopping because my legs weren't really feeling it, I was back home putting the kettle on ("The Emma's" gone away for a reunion so I had to make my own tea) in time for a late lunch. Not a bad day out if I do say so myself, and better than sitting at home, watching repeats on the magic picture box. After an afternoon catching up on a few odd jobs around the house and with no Emma to amuse me, I was soon back to pacing around like a caged gibbon. With there being nothing to keep me at home it was pretty easy to make a last minute decision to grab some running kit and the van and head up to Kingsclere to watch the sun go down and get in a few miles running along the Wayfarers walk in the morning. Being a clear night and with a better vantage point than Friday night, I was treated to not only a stupendous sunset, but getting to see the moon rising over the hill from the other direction, slowly getting bigger and brighter and fading the stars out with its extreme luminescence. A great nights sleep and back up in time to watch the sun doing the same trick as the moon had managed the night before, brew in hand, a smile on my face and a great start to the day, it doesn't get much better than that. After another brew and breakfast sat in the early morning sun I was good to go by 08:00, well before it got too warm and all the dog botherer's with their mile long extendable leads, perfectly designed to trip you up, and out of control hounds arrived. It was a beautiful morning for running and with some stunning scenery to look at and E.L.O playing quietly in my ears (Mr Blue Sky anyone) the 15 mile target for the day was quickly knocked off and I was back at the van by 10:15, cooling down sat in the sun, with a brew on, big smile on my face and feet up. More importantly though, my dodgy left ankle seemed to hold up fairly well, although Monday morning will be the telling point once it's had a chance to stiffen up, but hopefully, 16 weeks (not that I'm counting) after finally admitting it was bolloxed, I seem to be getting somewhere. Not a bad weekend out and about then, and by being the early bird I still had time to catch the worm. Although not fancying worms for tea, I opted to spend the afternoon on the allotment, creosoting the shed and pottering about. Oh, and the Sleeping mat, well it felt pretty good, very comfortable considering its only 6.5cm thick and weighs 700g, it wasn't actually that cold though, so we will have to wait and see how well insulated it actually is.
And my new Audax friend, well, he told me all about a couple of people he was friends with that had walked lands from End to John-o-Groats. Now if I had a bucket list and a couple of months spare!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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