Just over a month a go I got doored by a young woman in a VW Polo - she opened the door without looking and took me out. If I had been just that much faster or just that much slower she would have missed me! I was riding my bicycle to my softball game and I never made it. I am a good motorcyclist, i know how to watch for heads in a car to check if it is occupied, but the woman was reaching over to the floor of the passenger side to get her handbag so there was no head to see. I was riding in the bicycle lane down a relatively busy street - I couldn't ride in the road because of the traffic.
It did pretty much the same thing to my left shoulder as I did to my right shoulder a few years back when I was diving for a ground ball in a softball game. It got jammed and put it out of action for a month or two, but nothing serious - nothing is broken or torn loose in there. I was very lucky. Bessie, however, was even more lucky! She shows no signs of accident at all - I knew she was a tough old girl :) I am happy to report that the thing that came off the worst in the accident was the car - the door wouldn't shut! It left about an inch gap and there were ripply dents in the front quarter panel and on the door.
When it all happened I knew it had been hit hard and landed hard - I landed on my back and hit the ground about the same time that my head was receiving the message about the door being opened - it was that fast! I sent a text to my team and told them I would be delayed and then I called A - I was just down the road from home, less than mile. She came to get me and I told her she could help me get to the game....she knew I was not right :) We sorted things out and then she made me go home and put some ice on my shoulder and the scrapes that I got on my leg. It was the right thing to do. Over the next few days I was coming to accept that it was a bit worse than I thought and that I was going to be off my bike for weeks, not days.
I had a race booked and I wasn't going to make it. It was the 12 hour solo event at TwentyFour12 and I couldn't even ride my bike in the street outside my house, I wasn't going to be able to ride off road. So we changed our plans...but we had to do something just as cool or I was going to be depressed. By this time my shoulder was really letting me know it wasn't happy and I started putting it in a sling to take the pressure off of it. I suggested to A that we walk the Kennet and Avon Canal from Reading to Bath and she readily agreed! Woohoo! So I got busy and booked some accommodation in Bath and the train tickets and I now had something to look forward to. I started walking to work to get my legs in shape for the 80 mile walk.
The time came to go and A was not feeling well, so we delayed our departure by one day and I changed the tickets and we got off in Kintbury instead of Reading.
The canal is right next to the railway so we took this photo and headed west!
We saw lots of things as we walked - flowers, wildlife, cool canal things...the back of A :) It was amazing! And when we got to Bath, that was amazing, too :)
Here are some of the many flowers that we saw:
We saw some amazing dragon flies but they wouldn't stay still to have their photo taken and neither would the stoat! But we saw lots of birds, cows, horses, goats, sheep and dogs :) And even this lizard.
and ducklings!!!!!
The canal was beautiful and we were walking in the most rural areas.
We saw walked under a ton of bridges and by loads of locks - more that one per mile on our first day - and swing bridges and even one draw bridge that was manually operated. We did have one tunnel of the trip - the first day - which we had to go up and over and not through.
We saw lots of swing bridges - the bridge just swings out of the way to let the boats pass.
and locks. I have saved the best one, though, you will see later :)
Here is A on the Avoncliff Aquaduct...
There was a total lack of canalside pubs on the first day...but we found an excellent one the end of the first day. It was in Pewsey and they had Hidden Brewery beer...on gravity!!! It was fabulous! There were more as we went along....good thing, too as we needed one when the rain came :)
Some interesting items we saw along the way...a home made tandem, a canalboat that looked like Hobbits would live there, a fab bicycle sculpture and these beautiful clouds.
Due to the injury, I wore my sling pretty much the whole time....
Don't be thinking that we wore ourselves out, we took lots of breaks....
for ice cream...
to watch boats in the locks...
and for PUDDINGS!!!!!! This is a bread and butter pudding made out of scones and clotted cream....it was as good as it looks, I promise :)
here I am asking A if I can eat ALL the pudding...or do I have to share?
We had to take a little detour....
When we arrived in Pewsey (and went right for the beer :) we got around to asking the publican about some accommodation for the night. He was not hopeful and nor was a woman friend of his that was also at the bar. He did make a few phone calls for us and everyone was booked. He suggested we walk down to Honey Street (40 mins farther on the canal) and camp out at the music festival - have a few drinks and pass out out in the field :) We are world travellers and we didn't exactly look at each other in horror:) When we pushed a little harder for him to think of alterrnatives he called a few more places and then we found out the real reason all the accomodation was booked - there was a crop circle convention in the area and people had come from all over the world to go. Ah, that would be it, then :)
We reluctantly disturbed our friends on very short notice and asked for a bed for the night - we hadn't realized that they were so close! They were so wonderful - they were not put out, they were more than happy to have us and the kids didn't want us to leave when it was time to go and the best part is that they even came to collect us! Ok, it's only 15 miles, but we had just walked about 20 miles and we were knackered. Our fabulous driver even stopped on the way back so we could collect a pizza - we were also starving :) We ended up staying the next day with them and going out to play with the kids twice! And spend a couple of hours at the pub on the green :) Two mornings later we got dropped in Marlborough early in the morning and we were on our own again and tasked to find the canal.
We were going to take a bus to Devizes but they didn't start running until 10, so then we were going to go to Bath and walk the route backwards, but wee got off the bus early in a town that was only a couple of miles from the canal and started there. We asked directions and got some helpful and not very helpful suggestions (and a great recommendation for a pub :). We were told to go through the corn field to find the Avon River and then just follow it down, there was a wide path. Hmmm. We did the cornfield and found the river, but there was no path!!! We followed the river walking through some fields and finally got stopped by a wall of stinging nettles - this was definitely not the route. We managed to find a public footpath, but the farmer had not kept the way clear. Then we spotted a path and we followed that...to another cornfield. This one had a bit of a path cut through it (the occasional cornstalk was cut or torn off at the base - it was a path)and it was obvious that this was the public footpath. We emerged to the surprise of the local residents, but no one said anything but the dogs barked :) We found the road and a cold drink and then we finally found the canal! We were back in business and well on track to make the Bath B&B before dark. It was an excellent diversion for our trip!
I must say that I have always wanted to walk through a cornfiled - be it Field of Dreams or even before that...it was awesome.
So, we made the B&B and it was wonderful. We walked to the next town over and went to a gastro pub and picked lots of small items off the menu and that made for exactly what we wanted to eat. Then we slept like the dead - we had done a long day!
The next morning we were raring to go and we walked the last bit of the canal into Bath.
We saw this interesting sight - a speed camera on the canal?
We also spent some time watching the boats go through the Deep Lock. A road works project had combined 2 locks into one very deep one.
Then we were in town...
They had all these pigs...we chose ones that were like us :)
Would you believe...we found a fab Nepalese restaurant!!!! Yak Yeti Yak. It was so good, brought back so many memories, and the people were so friendly - we went back the next day for dinner, too! The yellow dahl was fabulous and they had a bean/bamboo shoot/potato curry that was out of this world :)
This is A stating that she isn't going to share....ok,maybe you can have one momo :):):)
Ah, back home again. It was a fab trip, we did about 50 miles and never had to be out in the rain - we had beautiful weather!!!
And tomorrow I am going to ride my bike to work! The first time in over a month. I will be very careful....
-K
P.S. all the photos were taken with our mobile phones!!!! not the cameras we hauled all over India and China.
