Tally ho!

For one day of the Easter weekend, I decided to take my recently acquired bi-wheeled, pedal-powered pain machine for a ride. I learnt a few things in the process.

1) Don't brush any, ANY, form of foliage growing along English roads. No matter how innocuous it may look, it is guaranteed to have a 3 inch, barbed spike hiding somewhere, waiting to drive itself deep into the flesh of unsuspecting cyclists.

2) It may look like cyclists coasting downhill are having fun. They're not. That look on their face is nothing short of blissful and all-consuming gratitude for the short respite they are having from the grueling and frankly masochistic trial they have just endured. Look closely and you'll see in their eyes something halfway between dread and maniacal enthusiasm as they approach the next slope.

3) Don't ride on A-roads in the UK. Trust me.

4) Any and all of the above tribulations are well and truly swept aside by the satisfaction of having cycled all day to see a sight like that above. I'm not sure if the photo really does it justice, but having pedalled a particularly tough section of the route I had chosen (actually, chosen is really not that good a term for it. Hazarded upon with intentions of extreme vagueness is closer), to be presented with a magnificent view of the sun lowering behind the precariously-perched ruins of a castle made it more than worthwhile

If any are interested is checking out the route I took, which encompassed parts of the New Forest (beautiful - I'll be going back there later in the spring), the Dorset coastline and a ferry ride across into Hampshire before heading to Wareham to catch a train back to London, please click away.