Stop. Look. Listen. Learn.

Luke can do the Glenkiln round in less than 45 minutes on his racing bike. My bike’s not made for racing and I’m not as fit as he is, but the reason that this ride usually takes me a couple of hours is that I stop. Often. Not to draw breath, I hasten to add :-) I’m usually stopping to listen to the birds and record their song on my phone. There’s a good app called bird.net which analyses the songs and identifies the bird. This has helped me a lot since despite the excellent tuition of our local Bird Group leader, Colin, I still struggle with telling the difference between warblers. It’s a slow learning curve, but I have time..

I also stop to look at cows, sheep and trees, and to talk to anyone I meet (from a distance). This morning I saw a newborn calf; its mother was eating the afterbirth.

As Luke says, our bike rides are for different purposes, though I’m still toying with the idea of getting a racing bike for my “special” birthday next year.

In the meantime, I’m thinking about what it would be like to stretch out my ride to last a whole day - it reminds me of the long exploratory rides I took on my own when I first learned to ride a bike at the age of 12. (It was a Raleigh Small Wheel which a neighbour had outgrown). Maybe the lockdown is an opportunity to revisit that sense of freedom? An interesting notion when people protesting against the lockdown because they say that their freedoms are being taken away...