I stopped to read the map, in spite of having reading glasses on I noticed movement. A combination of the noise of the stream and the wind blowing in my face allowed me to observe this fox.
There was this little ride (number 4 in the Mountain Bike Guide to the Brecon Beacons) that was described as taking three hours to complete, be of moderate difficulty and started from close to the house. I expected this would be the type of ride that would be eminently suited to a person who had, by extreme misfortune, bruised a couple of ribs and had a swollen knee or so I thought.
I started early, took a waterproof but no food or phone. It scares me to read what I write. Common sense suggests that I should not make any of these school boy errors, but I do! Worse was to come. I said earlier that it was close to the house, about three miles. You will be impressed when I tell you I managed to drive nearly thirty miles before parking the car in the right place. Global warming I am going for Global burning!
The ride was extremely interesting – difficult. Starting form Bretchfa Pool it first went across a common, not a little piece of land but an area that could be measured in square kilometres.
I stopped by a stream. Sat crosslegged on the leaves and got the map out. It was then that I spotted the fox. I enjoyed three minutes or so of the fox hunting. It was running up and down the bank in a zig zag pattern carring out an intensive search. The hunting season starts tomorrow!
The farmers around here harvest heather for winter straw – see round bales in photographs – and to increase the amount of grass growth at the end and the beginning of the season. After about three hours, the suggested time for completing the ride – I had reached the half-way point – Not having the stamina to complete the ride I gave up and headed for the nearest road. That would have been fine if I had had a map of the area. I didn’t because I had only the guide to the cycle rides and this was the ride that was the furthest North. The problem was that I had cycled off the map! Time to practise my people skills. After chats with a dustbin man and a postal worker I had a vague idea of the way home. It started raining. Suprise suprise I had the right kit and had a pleasant but wet twelve mile ride back to base. On my grading system that is a reasonable day!
