womanonabicycle .....: 'Easy like Sunday morning' / 'Lost and found'

Miles cycled: 9.58.
Miles walked 9 ish
Dedications: 2
Number of things lost/found: 3
Questions answered: 6
Days without make up: 7

Started off this am full of food! Stayed at a B & B in Easton Royal where they thought of everything. EVERYTHING! It was a bit like living with pixies, you half expected someone to pop up post-shower, look at your hair and say 'quick blow-dry madam?' Breakfast was: muesli, prunes, muffin, scrambled egg, salmon, parsley, lemon, tomato, toast, butter, blackcurrant jam, coffee, orange juice. I could barely walk. Luckily my dream machine could still roll. And she did.

Gambled a bit today and decided to go off-route (Don't stray from the paaaath), left the National Cycle Route no 4 and stayed alonside the canal. Daring! Actually, was a bit nervous in places as the track became very narrow, rocky and bumpy but me old mate Kev saw me through (more about that in another post), I arrived incident free.

In fact, there is a real easy-going atmosphere canalside, dogs, cups of tea and wood-burning stoves all feature heavily and you can't really argue with that. Anyone want to go halves on a barge? The only hysteria charged moment was when I encountered a couple of rotund elderly gentlemen outside a pub near Pewsey. As I stuggled to pass one said to the other:

'Careful Bert, young lady trying to paaaasss'

'So she is, don't worry my deeeeeer, think of me as a speed bump.'

Pause while I start giggling... well, he was funny. Bert continued:

'Look at that Arthur, I think she's on her Cycling Proficiency. Keep it up girl, badge tomorrow.'

I wobbled away, trying not to fall in.

Stopped at half eleven as I wanted to walk up to the Pewsey Horse - who wouldn't? For full horse history see link (just scroll down). Salty Sea-Dog came to join. On my way to meet him I stopped at Saxon St Mary (Church) and found myself lured into the grandly named Alton Barnes Photo Museum. FAB! A testament to what you do when you've got a load of pics of your family lying round. You free up a room, arrange the pics and invite all and sundry to visit. It was randomly brilliant. We don't have enough fun free stuff in this country. Why don't you do something other people can enjoy for free - GO ON! Bake a cake and give it away, chalk a random picture on your outside wall, put a painting in your window turned facing OUT, sing a song in public without your cap out, leave spare plants at the end of your drive, make a picture with stones on the beach, draw a hopskotch on the path and see how many people use it.

So, the horse on the hill....it was...white...and chalky and steep. Me in my steel plated cycling shoes and Sea-Dog regaining his land legs in flip flops. We were like Neil 'first landing' Armstrong and Johnny 'Pirate' Depp out for a stroll. We found Nicholas Massy's mobile phone, he's in class C1, we carried it with us in case we met him so we could give it back.

After seeing 'Dobby' the itinary was pub/eat/walk. We followed the canal: grassy, slow, meandering. We looked at the canal boats: painted, slow, meandering. All was good. Salty-Sea-Dog made a discovery! A hobbit had left his walking stick by the canal. Horrah! We carried it with us in case we met him so we could give it back.

On the way we hypothesised on what it would be like to own a canal boat. Sea-Dog, being realistic, expressed concerns over the 'black waste' (sewage), I wondered if there'd be enough space for my shoes.

We had lots of other unanswerable questions in our heads, prompted by the scenery. As we dawdled we saw a big boat. A not-so-narrow-boat, aka 'wide beam' we got chatting to Dog-Posse Mum and Dad. They very kindly showed us around their newly acquired boat, made us a cuppa tea, let us meet their beautiful dogs and answered nearly all our questions.

Questions answered:
1. Narrow and wide beam boats have flushable toilets.
2. Waste tanks can be emptied at special stations by use of a pump.
3. There is plenty of below bed storage space.
4. During WWII the Kennet and Avon Canal was set up as a natural line across the country which would be heavily defended in case of invasion to the south.
5. There are four main differences between a canoe and kayak (which I am happy to supply upon request!).
6. Dogs in the Dog Posse are: Ripple, Crumpet, Nala and Alfie.

One question unanswered: Why do some of the hills have ridges in them? Are they caused by:
a. Animals (sheep)
b. Humans
c. Geographical processes

Dog Posse Mum and Dad couldn't answer this one for us so I am now relying on Award-winning-Geography-teaching-Brother-in-law - 'Geog-Bruv'. He'll be able to tell us the cause.

And finally, Sea-Dog gave me a lift to the B & B before heading off home. After he left, I discovered I had left my camera in his car. DOH! Imagine - loss of pics, no new pics, postless pics. I texted Sea-Dog to ask him to post it on to me so I could receive in a couple of days. The little STAR turned round and brought it all the way back, so any future pictures are thanks to him!