As I Xi It

Went to Black Park last Monday for a cycle. It was good cycling weather and not too busy either.

This Saturday, Bone and I went back to Burnham Beeches for a spot of cycling. While we were unloading the car, a dog appeared from nowhere and presents Bone with a stick, eager to play fetch. Of course, she obliged.

The dog (Kerry) followed us for a bit into the woods and I guess got bored and went back home. I suspect she lives in one of the houses nearby.

Last week, we took a fairly gentle stroll around the woods, this week, it all started off pretty well until I decided that we should go off trail and ended up cycling through some thick fallen leaves, past a broken fence and suddenly we arrived on an island of scrubland full of heather and gorse.

More Dorset than Buckinghamshire. As we negotiated through the heather, we arrived on some tarmac roads and came across a whole bunch of european foreigners. They looked like a tour group, pretty far from central London. As we cycled past, one of them was collecting horse turds. I can’t imagine manure to be that expensive to buy anywhere in the world. Bone suggested that perhaps she collects turds like how I sometimes like to collect moss, lichens and rocks. But turds? I can’t imagine scatology to be a particuarly popular field. I guess different strokes for different folks or as Bone says “different horses for different courses”.

As we kept cycling along the tarmac, I found that it’d take us onto a main road and as we’re not road cyclists, we turned back into the woods. We retraced our steps (wheels?) towards the scrubland only to find that we had gone in circles and ended up where we entered. According to a plaque we’d past, the island of scrubland has a moat around it which would explain why we we kept coming across stagnant water. Upon consultation with my GPS, we eventually found our way back to the track which we had veered off. Things soon went downhill…literally.

So, we continued on back towards the car when I spot a steep descent and decided to zoom on down only to lose control and somehow get thrown off my bike, into the mud and ended up being pinned down by my bike over my head. Miraculously, I didn’t suffer any major head trauma, just cuts and scrapes here and there. I was just covered in mud, of all the spots I could’ve crashed into, it had to be that one patch of mud there. I suppose it was a softer landing than had it been on compacted dirt.

Tracks

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Taking my bike out for a real ride through the dense forest (coniferous) in deepest, darkest Buckinghamshire and testing out the cycle carrier. They all held up, but I’ll have to take up Evans’ offer of a free service within the first six weeks from purchase of my bike. I’ve got gear changing issues.

You tend not to take as many photos when out cycling as you do when you go for a stroll. Things do tend to whizz you by.

From last weekend.

Had a picnic of sorts and a ramble in the woods with Bone this weekend.

Picnic utensils

All quiet, even on a sunny Saturday afternoon

Broadleaved deciduous woodlands

Polyphore fungi

Beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Well, having had a moan in my last post about lazyness in blogging, I now feel like getting through the backlong of things to post about.

First up, the New Forest! The last time I was there was when I was a kid, we were passing through on a family holiday, probably back from Corwall or something and I remember Dad going on about Robin Hood. Jac was in town and I thought it might be nice that we pop down to the New Forest. It was only about a 2 hours drive from London and Kamil our driver would be chauffering us… in his three doored compact (indeed it was, especially for 4!).

It was a Monday like no other, out in the country with chums I haven’t seen in a while. Driving through the forest reminded me of Kruger, the sound of gravel parting under the wheels of the car, the sun and that anticipation in looking out for four legged mammals. Kamil and I reminisced about Kruger as we’ve both been on separate occasions, but Jac hasn’t, poo her!

So yeah, the New Forest was good. Not sure what else to say about it really. We had fish & chips for dinner, earlier, Jac and I had scampi & chips for lunch. How imaginative.

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