I’ve booked a kite land boarding lesson for next wednesday evening. It looks like a lot of fun and there is a great spot for it just around the corner from here. Its basically flying a parachute type kite while riding a skate board type thing. If I find I can handle it ok, I may even try kite surfing on the water.
Anyway I will get Mike to come down too and snap some photos of me.
Wish me luck!
Today I had to go into the office. This meant getting up before the sparrowfart at the ungodly hour of 5.30am. It’s a bit of a novelty going to the office these days. Everyone gives that shock/horror look wondering why I made the effort of a 3 hour commute when there are no drinks planned for the evening.
Then there was the drama with my bottom drawer in my desk. I made the mistake of leaving some cereal in my draw the last time I was in the office about a month ago, and a mouse/rat had got into it. There is muesli and mouse droppings all over the place. It stinks! I’ll get someone from premises to deal with that tomorrow when I am not there.
Then the trains lived up to their reputation by being affected by major engineering work. What is normally a 2 hour train journey now turned into a 3 hour journey. I could get to goddamned Paris quicker! The problem with these long train journeys is they have a bar onboard. Normally I get plastered on the 2 hour journey, so I thought it best to catch the train to mikes work and get a lift home with him. This was a good move as we also got home in time for Home and Away and bike night down the quay.
I am sooo looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow morning.
The Easter bunny came. I kicked Mike out of bed to make a cup of tea and he found easter eggs in the tea bags and sugar. We will need to throw it all out now and get the exterminators in. Gawd knows where that dirty bunny has been.
It was the most glorious sunny day and Matt joined us for a less optimistic bike ride today. We rode only 15 miles (about 26kms). We cycled down the ferry at Sandbanks and crossed over to Studland. Studland has an amazing sandy beach, very unusual for England. There is no promenade, houses, shops or anything touristy. Its about a 2km uninterrupted stretch of sand and dunes, very similar to NZ beaches.
Here comes the ferry to fetch us.
Its a chain ferry. I’m always paranoid the chains will snap and we will drift out of control out to sea.
Mike and Matt and Ollie enjoying the brief crossing
A beachy shot
Then we continued on the road a bit to a pub called the Banks Arms. .
The pub had a large outdoor area with sea view but I didnt think to get a photo of it. We had some lunch there. Matt had the ploughmans lunch and Mike had a brie and cranberry baguette. I ate my healthy lunch I had packed.
We finished off the day with a few beers down the quay, then a lovely meal at Oriel. Their garlic prawns are really large, really garlicky, and really yummy.
I think the ride to the New Forest was a bit optimistic. We cycled for 30 miles (50kms) and couldnt even find the New Forest and got kinda lost. after about 20 miles we were both in extreme agony. Sore bums, legs etc. I thought I might’ve been a bit fitter, having been riding regularly for the last few months, but only on short trips of about 1 hours duration.
The ride started out well, with some nice harbour scenery:
Then a gentle forest trail:
We stopped and laughed at all the people in the traffic jam on their way into Poole:
This is an old train line we are riding on. Its been covered up and turned into a cycle track. Isn’t Mikes bum cute?
An old train station. Pity we cant catch the train from here, my bum is so sore.
After another 3 hours riding we found working train station and took the easy way home:
Apparently we are going to have highs of 17 degrees over all of the easter days. I wonder if the weather website is just saying that to make us feel good or whether it will really happen.
I really do hope so as we have some awesome bike rides lined up for the weekend. This is the plan if the weather stays good:
Good Friday: Cycle to the new forest and forage for some caches
Saturday: Cycle to lulworth cove and durdle dor
Sunday: Cycle to Swangage and catch the ferry back
We should have some amazing photos after the weekend so stay tuned!
Well apparently they are lobsters. not sure what the difference is. These guys were bringing up loads of crates of lobsters and all different types of crabs down the Quay. We considered buying one but neither of us really knew what do to with it.
Last night was bike night down the quay. Every Tuesday night in Summer, Poole is invaded by up to 1000 motorbikes of all shapes and sizes.
It was quite a dark evening so alot of my photos didnt come out very well. I will try get some better ones next week. These were about the best of them: