CONSTANTS......

There are some things in our lives that can remain as a constant ....Things that we learn about or become interested in as a child or a teenager that stay with us and do not change.....something amongst all the subjects, fads and crazes that we get involved with that remain with us. 
For me the love of the outdoors and riding a bike are two of these constants........ 


Now for something to be counted as a constant it does not mean that it is something that you have done throughout your life but more likely that throughout your life it is something that for periods of time you might well have stopped doing but always gone back to. 


Let me explain...
I first realized that the outdoors was important to me as a small child when I was playing out adventures in the countryside where we lived at the time, pretending to be an explorer and discovering hidden worlds less than half a mile from my home.....in those days I seemed to spend hours out of doors. 


When we moved as a family from the South coast to the London area because of my fathers job, my opportunities to spend lots of time in the outdoors changed and I realized that I preferred open country to city life. Because of circumstances over which I had no control I was unable to spend that part of my childhood in the countryside but my love of wild and open countryside remained with me..... 
I spent lots of time reading about it though and that helped to satisfy some of my desire to actually get out into the outdoors and enjoy something that I felt was really important to me. 


Later when we moved out of the built up area of South London to an area where we seemed to be surrounded by gravel pits and the wild areas around them I was able to get out and spend more time again playing and exploring in the great outdoors.......a constant in my life. 


Cycling has been the same. 
As a child from learning to ride a bike....to cycling further afield....the bike offered me the opportunity to explore other areas and combine my love of the outdoors and exploring new places with lots of things such as map reading and camping. 
Later on as a young teenager I would plan cycle camping trips with friends and our world became restricted only by what we could actually imagine doing......


As life moved on there would be times when again I was not able to get out into the wild places as much or ride my bike every week....for instance when the pressure of work seemed to get in the way or the ups and downs of family life made it seem impossible. Indeed there have been times when I have not even owned a tent or even a bike.....but.....I have always come back to the outdoors and cycling....two of the constants in my life. 


Now I am retired I am able to indulge myself in these activities more than at any time before.....activities that have been  in my life for over 50 years..  If I could only ever have one more ride of a bike....or one more camping trip it would have to be a cycle touring trip the perfect combination of these two constants.