FLYING........

AT LAST......SOME RAIN

 After a few weeks of weather that was more like the middle of June, Easter week has finally given us some rain. 
The above picture is the view I had from the east wing of Purple Towers looking across to the Isle of Wight on a number of days this week. 
As well as the rain the temperature has dropped by quite a lot as well. 


We really needed the rain as a number of water companies have introduced a hosepipe ban stating that we face drought conditions and I must admit that a number of the streams in the locality have dried up completely. 
Reservoirs are well below their normal level for this time of year and we are told that we would need a good few weeks of solid rain in order to bring them back up to normal levels. 
As far as cycling goes I prefer riding when its dry, so this past week has involved a fair bit of rain dodging.

PETER TAKING A BREAK

On Saturday evening Peter Calcutt phoned me and suggested  a Sunday ride as the weather forecast was for some dry and sunny weather. 
This morning I set off for Peter's house with the sun shining and a nice blue sky. 
By the time I got to Peter's, the cloud was starting to build up and it felt quite chilly. 


Peter had planned a circular route out from his house at Blandford Forum with a proposed coffee stop at Compton Abbas airfield.  
With the strong winds we experienced the airfield proved to be the closest we came on the ride to 'flying along'. 
At one point zooming down a very exposed 20% hill, the strong gusty cross winds proved to much causing us to both brake sharply in order to scrub off the speed and remain upright.

COFFEE AT THE AIRFIELD

 Compton Abbas airfield is situated on an airy ridge a few miles south of Shaftesbury. 
The wind up there was bitterly cold and the temperature wasn't helped by the fact that the sun had all but disappeared behind a sky full of cloud. 


Following a quick cup of coffee and a brief look as some of the aircraft we were back on the bikes and following a popular route through the pretty Tarrant villages.
We have cycled that route quite a few times and it never becomes boring.

THE CLOSEST WE GOT TO 'FLYING ALONG' ON THIS RIDE.

Once we reached the 'True Lover's Knot' public house most of our ride was completed. 
Within a few more miles we were back at Peter's where we managed to warm up  with another steaming hot mug of coffee.
Apart from the very cold weather, it was a very enjoyable ride with a couple of nice steep ascents that did help to warm us up a little.

SO COLD EVEN THE PLANES HAVE LITTLE BLUE COATS ON THEIR NOSES

Further to my last posting regarding the medical tests that I had.....


Well I should have contacted the Doctor during the week for the results, but I kept putting it off. By the time Friday had come around I figured that if the tests had unearthed something nasty the Doctor would have been on the phone to me pretty quickly.....as he didn't phone me I felt that all was probably OK. 


Having said that I will be phoning the Doctor tomorrow just to confirm my assumption......as long as I don't put it off again.

A BIT OF A BUMP.....

Following the great backpacking weekend that I had with other members of the Backpackers Club, Monday was a bit of a bump back to earth. 


For the last few weeks I have been experiencing a certain amount of pain and discomfort in my lower right hand side although as you can see from my mileage counter it hasn't stopped me riding my bike and putting the miles in. 
However given my medical history over the last three years, as it wasn't improving it was something that I couldn't ignore, so a couple of weeks ago I visited my doctor. He organised some pain killers and arranged for me to have some tests and scans. 
I was due to have my regular six monthly check and an appointment with my Consultant Clinical Oncologist in a few weeks time, but that has now been put back until after this current problem has been investigated. 


Anyway,  on Monday morning I set off to the hospital to have the various tests etc. 
As I said, a bit of a bump back to earth. 
I won't know the results till sometime next week but it has already caused problems....


JD and I were due to set off for France in two weeks time for a spot of cycle touring and this will not now be taking place. 
If I do have a problem I don't really want to be in France till it all gets sorted and then there is the issue of being able to get adequate travel insurance which can be problematic to say the least if you have serious health issues. 


It's not just me either...JD has been having problems associated with his one remaining kidney (he donated his other one to his daughter a few years ago) and he is scheduled to have some tests, so we made the decision to cancel the trip........
It all goes to support what I have always said.....if you have something that you would like to do, don't keep on dreaming about it just get on and do it, because you really don't know what's around the corner that could really stop you doing it altogether. 


Anyway, three months of the year have now gone and I have managed to reach a third of last years total mileage already. 
I am well on the way to reaching my 10,000 mile 2012 target  so I just hope that these latest health concerns don't get in the way...... 


I am going to have a short break over Easter but will be back again sometime next week....Enjoy your Easter everyone.

BACKPACKERS CLUB - WILTSHIRE WEEKEND BACKPACK

CHURCHYARD AT SIXPENNY HANDLEY

 The Wiltshire Backpacking weekend went well.....although most of the route appeared to be in Dorset and not Wiltshire. 
Howard Kelly was the arranger for the weekend and apparently led the walk on the Saturday. 
I say 'apparently' because from the moment we set off from our starting point at Church Farm at Sixpenny Handley I didn't see him again till we arrived at our Saturday nights camp at Honeysuckle Homestead at Dinton. 
If you have ever seen a greyhound leave it's trap at the start of a race, well that was what Howard was like, with what the rest of us dubbed the 'Advance Party' as they disappeared from view.  
The rest of us formed the 'Rear Guard' and ambled along at a more relaxed pace.


The weekend had started on the Friday afternoon with club members starting to arrive from about 1300hrs. 
There were about twenty BPC members who arrived at Church Farm for this weekend event and as always it was good to meet up with old friends doing what we all enjoy.....walking and camping combined, or in other words 'backpacking'.


The plan was to walk about twelve miles to Dinton on the Saturday going via the Historic Fovant Military Badges. These are military badges carved into the chalk hillside at Fovant in Witshire. We then stayed at a Camping & Caravan Club certified site on the Saturday night returning to Sixpenny Handley on the Sunday by a slightly different route. 


A word of thanks must go to John Yale one of our Dorset group members, who had taken the trouble to plan a route for both days and took over as our 'Rear Guard' leader after the advance party had disappeared. 
The weather was dry all over the weekend with bright and sunny being the order of the day on the Friday and Sunday and a bit overcast on the Saturday. 


I would also mention that Graham Faithfull the Dorset groups new co-ordinator brought along two of his young sons for the weekend. 
I am not sure exactly how old they are, but I would guess some where around 10 -12 years old......anyway I would like to comment on how good they were as walking companions....carrying their own packs for the overnight camp they walked the 12 miles in both directions without a hint of a complaint. 
Wonderful to see future full blown Backpackers Club members of the future. 
Graham....they are a real credit to both you and your wife....  


I won't try and cover everything that happened over the weekend.....I'll just say that as always it was a total enjoyment....I have included a few of the photos I took over the weekend just to give you a flavour of the event.

SATURDAYS LUNCH STOP AT EBBESBOURNE WAKE

SOME OF THE 'REAR GUARD' STRAGGLERS

BRIAN TOALSTER ONE OF THE DORSET GROUPS CHARACTERS

CHRIS AND HIS FOUR LEGGED COMPANION

PETER CALCUTT PREPARING A BREW

FACILITIES AT DINTON - 'THE THUNDERBOX'

A FEW OF OUR TENTS AT DINTON

GRAHAM AND SONS ENJOYING A VIEW ON SUNDAY'S WALK

THE FOVANT HISTORIC MILITARY BADGES

LUNCH BREAK ON SUNDAY'S WALK

FIONA GOES OUT.....

FIONA OUT IN THE SPRING SUNSHINE

With all the good weather we have been having recently, every day is a bike ride day. 
It dawned on me this morning that I should get the Felt out and use her for today's sixty mile dash......
This is the earliest in the year that I have brought her out of hibernation. The weather has been so good with no rain for ages that she was crying out for a ride. 


Some days you can have a good ride and on other days you can have a great ride.......well today was a bloody marvellous ride and to top it all I even completed the loop in the fastest time that I have ever done it .....and it felt good.                            

THE WORST VIEW OF CORFE CASTLE

When I realized that I was on for a good time for the loop I decided that I would only make a couple of very swift stops to take two or three shots with the camera on the new phone that I have been struggling with. 


The first shot is of Fiona next to a small duck pond that is opposite a farmhouse that I passed. 
The shot above is of Corfe castle and it is probably the worst direction to take a picture of it, but I had no inclination to go to the other side of the castle for the better view. 
When your heading for a good training time, you don't want to spoil it by losing too much of that time taking pictures. 


I am hoping that the good weather continues, because on Friday I am planning on attending a Backpackers Club weekend backpack. 
I actually intend to do some walking this time rather than using my touring bike. 
I haven't been on a backpack since before my cancer diagnosis so I am really looking forward to it. 
When I get back on Sunday night I hope to be able to post up some photos with a report on how it all went.....

WHAT A PAIN....!!

This weekend my mobile phone gave up on life..... 
The problem first started when JD and I were cycling back from Gibraltar last September. 
I noticed that a couple of the keys were only working on an intermittent basis. 
Not really a problem when using the phone as a phone but when using it for texts or more importantly if I wanted to send a new post to this blog it was becoming a pain to use. 


The problem became really bad during this past week and by the weekend it was impossible to use. 
I have had the phone for four years and it was because of the phone that I started this blog. 
The phone had a permanent App for Blogger pre-loaded, so I thought that I would try it out and here we now are after almost four years of blogging. 


I was really happy with the phone....it did everything that I wanted...took reasonable enough photos for uploading and most important of all....I felt comfortable using it. 
Funnily enough one of the things that I most liked about it (real keys) was the very thing that let it down in the end. 
I have avoided touch screen cameras....and was hoping to avoid touch screen phones......but things move on. 


This weekend I made a visit to the same phone shop where I bought my phone last time. 
Patience must be on the interview checklist for phone shop sales assistants.....and believe me the guy that served me needed all the patience he could muster. 
Trying to get me to understand anything to do with electronics and new technology requires a degree in patience and a full diploma in teaching ability....... 
As I said things move on and it all seems to be Android & i Phone these days. 
Touch screens seem to be everywhere. 


Anyway, I now have a new phone.....although trying to use it is a bit of an adventure in itself. 
I can manage to send a text and also make a phone call, but beyond that it still remains a mystery. I haven't managed to access the Internet on it yet and I need to do that in order to download an App for Blogger. 
I am sure that given a week or two and probably a visit back to the shop to clear up the queries I am left with, all will become clear....well lets just say misty and not foggy. 
What really annoys me is that the User's Manual is on a disc...... 



What's all this got to do with cycling I hear you say......
Well I like to update posts to this blog when I am on cycle touring trips and a good phone enables me to do that...plus I can have a radio and mp3 player and also a camera all built in helping to reduce my overall weight on the bike........


'What a Pain' it is getting used to something new. 

WHAT'S GOING ON...?

WHAT'S GOING ON?....AN EMPTY FERRY

What's going on?....I boarded the ferry for my usual trip over to the Purbecks today and apart from the cars, there was no one else on board. No pedestrians and no cyclists. 
Almost every time I ride on this ferry there is at least one other cyclist or a walker or two, but today no one. 
Then when I rode around my usual  Swanage/Corfe loop I didn't see any other cyclists either. It all seemed really odd....it was almost as if every cyclist except me had been beamed up to some spaceship or something.....

TEENAGERS CARRYING OUT SOME SORT OF SURVEY

When I arrived at the seafront at Swanage I stopped for a short break and as I sat looking at the beach I noticed that some teenagers were surveying on the beach. 
It might have been some kind of college project or something, but as I wasn't prepared to leave my bike while I walked over there to ask them what they were doing I can only guess at the reasons......

WORKMEN IN HARD HATS CARRYING OUT SOME SORT OF SURVEY

Then I looked further down the beach and noticed what looked like workmen surveying....now unlike the youngsters, these guys were wearing hard hats while they were carrying out their survey. Now why the workmen needed to wear hard hats while it was OK for the teenagers not to I have no idea....What's going on? 

I really wished that I had asked now.......

KNIGHTS OF THE WHEEL.......

One of the things that I like about cycling is the system of values and etiquette that exists. 
To someone who doesn't follow cycling as a sport or is not involved in any form of cycling, they are normally completely unaware of it. 


I can remember trying to explain to my wife as we watched the Tour de France on television some years ago, why four riders all from different teams were working together in a break.... 
"if they are in different teams then they shouldn't be helping each other" she said. 
I attempted to explain to her the circumstances in which opponents can become 'temporary' teammates. 
A tactical paradox that she had great difficulty in taking on board. 


I explained to her how these temporary alliances could be formed....how in a break other riders from other teams could become your ally if they were prepared to work within the group and also how the alliance could be broken again further into the race.... 
"Teams should be teams and not help each other" is all she would say...
but then that is understandable as her main sporting interest is Rugby and she sees cycling as a pointless or at best inferior sport.  


Then there is the self sacrifice of some riders in the team....an act of loyalty to another team member in order to help him get across the line first. 
The whole point is that throughout the various disciplines of cycling there is an attitude of a code of honour to be followed or in other words chivalry....
One could say it is a bit like the Knights of the Round Table following a chivalric code. 


You can see it at a Club level...sacrifice or servitude depending on what the occasion demands but always putting a teammate first...always remembering a code of fraternal loyalty. 
There is an unwritten law within cycling that you shouldn't do anything that would help to compromise the racing advantage of another team member a clubmate or friend....


This can also be seen outside of the pure sporting and competitive side of cycling......
The weekly club ride can be seen to operate within a strict code of behaviour and etiquette....things that should and shouldn't be done.... signals that need to be learned and understood in order to communicate to others in the group, the right and wrong way to pass another cyclist...alerting other riders to things such as approaching vehicles and potholes in the road that could be a danger to a following rider...doing your bit on the front of the group etc....
I could go on and on with examples of this perfectly devised cyclists code of  etiquette and chivalry that is almost hidden from 'outsiders'. 


However the code often shows itself in it's most basic form by the simple act of acknowledgement from one rider to another....
that small wave....
the slight movement of the hand....
the nod of the head......
even sometimes the word 'Hi' as you cycle past each other on opposite sides of the road. 


Each of these small actions is an acknowledgement of the other rider as being a fellow 'Knight of the Wheel'. 
If you get no response to your act of chivalry from the other rider I really wouldn't fret over it....
I wouldn't give it a second thought....why? 
Because the other rider has just shown you that he is an imposter.....
he is not really a true Knight....
he has shown that he does not understand the true meaning of the Chivalric Cycling Code and that  what he is after all, is a 'Muppet on a bike'.