Wash it away

Down at the end of my road is a car park of sorts. It's an area where those going walking, riding or mountain biking on the National Trust land (Wavering Down and Crook Peak if you want to look it up) can leave their cars or horseboxes if they have come from afar. It's a popular spot, and the views from the various hills are sublime.

During January the car park is always full to overflowing. Cars park up the side of the road, creating dangerous hazards and annoyances for the impatient. Particularly if I'm cycling on the other side of the road and holding up the cars. It's the same old story with gym memberships, diet fads, cycle racks at work, and all sorts of initiatives that started out as the best of intentions. (Warning link contains comic violence & swearing!).

I have a friend who didn't wear a watch for over 8 years. He claimed that as time was a man-made concept he wasn't going to go against natural laws and rhythms by being a slave to it. Fair point, I like a man with principles. But is was annoying that as he sat next to me at football he would constantly grab my wrist to see how much time to go in the match. Eventually I bought him a watch and became a slave like the rest of us.

But the point is the same. If you want to do something, do it. If not, don't. New Year is an artificial albeit convenient point of fresh resolve. I've fallen for this trap myself on numerous occasions with targets, goals and plans. Not this year though. Sure I have some things I'm looking forward to accomplishing. But I have made not one New Year's resolution, it's a more a transitional period. (more swearing).

The good news is that the compulsive record-keeping has continued, if not intensified. It keeps me happy and away from more dangerous obsessions. But I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say that I won't hit that sleep target if I carry on surfing YouTube till the small hours every day.

It was good to get out with a proper group today. I've enjoyed a fair bit of solo riding over the Christmas period, and last week was back on the commuter trail with a couple of runs to Bristol and back. But nothing really beats cycling up Cheddar gorge into a headwind with seven fellow cyclists all wondering what they are doing going up here in the January mists. After some nice coffee, food and chat we descended from the Mendips onto some of the only remaining dry roads on the levels. Cue photo opportunity:

We lost Chris at his house in Wales, and Peter near Westhay. He rode off the front into the wind and we couldn't shout loudly enough to get him back. And he was going too fast to catch as well! But Trevor, Paul, Martyn, Jennifer and Steve all made it to the bridge. But good to see them all today.

 

Most of what you see here is normally fields, although you do always get some flooding in most Winters. I've been here 12 years and never seen it as extensive as this. Actually I'm quite enjoying this weather. I know that the days are getting lighter, the Winter is only two months from its end, and we will soon be back in shorts, suncream and enjoying the sunshine.

Gradually people peeled off and I ended the ride on my own with a short loop around the Webbington Hotel. Total mileage just over 43 for a nice circular trip.
And my bike's very clean now too.