Country lanes

After one cracker of a rubbish night's sleep, I wasn't sure how I'd feel doing a ride today.  The good omen arrived this morning, however, with the postman holding a box with my new saddle in it right before I set off.  I've managed not to transfer my comfortable old sofa onto my new bike but, after a couple of hundred miles on it, I think I've given the new one a fair shot and it's torture in all the wrong places.  

With new seat in place and so far in comfort, I headed out to Kettlewell in sublime weather and scenery.  I took this pretty little lane thinking I might head through to Cracoe but was enjoying myself so much on the main Kettlewell route that I simply joined it again further down.

I breathed the air and the views and the time just seemed to evaporate.  It was magnificently quiet so I started pondering on the way back whether to try out the Storith's hill.  The last time and only time I've done it, I faced a ferocious headwind of cars which were being diverted to avoid a cycling fatality.  It was most unpleasant both knowing that something horrible must have happened and to be faced with car after car on a narrow uphill.

It couldn't have been more different, thankfully...  

I met a dog walker and a baby curlew.