The first weekend of the holidays…

Blog Musings, Features, Out and About — By Dickie on July 26, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Out on the trail

…was about as full as it could be, partly by planning and mainly through happy coincidence. Friday night was down at the Cricket club, lightly toasted by both barbecue and evening sun. Of course I don’t play cricket, but the children’s training is so well sorted that our eldest daughter loves going along and so do the rest of us to watch, mill about and set the weekend in motion.

I could have done without the full four bottles come seven on Saturday as Hugh and Simon set off at a typically just-above-comfortable pace across the bridleways running across our rolling landscape to one of the near villages. At this end of the day the sun was getting into its stride, raising warmth from the tight greenery along some of the trails without baking us in the open fields. Half an hour’s partially technical pedalling saw us on the banks of the Nene, next to the King’s Head at Wadenhoe. It’s not cold at this time of year. Really. There’s weed, but the water is clear to the bottom and the moored barges contrast colours with the luminous greens falling to the water’s edge. And then Hugh admits he’s been attacked by a swan near here, so I bravely retreat.

A mere pat down makes struggling into cycling Lycra an Indian war dance, but no-one is around to witness the horror and we’re saddled up and rolling out before the first barge chugs past. The trails tighten up near the valley floor, such as it is in these flat-to-lumpy parts. We’re cutting through ever sharper turns in every sense, with briar and nettles clawing at us. I get a firm hairbrushing from one nearly-missed rose, and contemplate helmet wearing. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Probably shall from now on; it’s not the big spills I’m worried about; more the constant encounters with twigs, banks and branches from riding these lightly-touched trails.

An hour back takes us along paths I’d have panted up a couple of months back, but regular riding is feeding strength back into 40-something legs and I’m actually enjoying myself. The newish bike makes a difference too, but not as much as the legs.

In the house by nine and start loading the tents. We’re camping tonight. More about that later…