This is Wednesday 16/09/09 and after a blissful night in Dalby Forest the morning started with some route finding problems, I found myself hacking through dense woodland pathways uphill and rocky, very hard riding and off bike for quite a bit. But in due course my compass and nose got me to the road on the north of the forest and I was now well on my way, the route quickly moved back into the trees and I recognised parts from my Tabular Hills walk of a year or so ago, I love these incidents of new routes crossing old ones. At Highwood Brow I elected to take the downhill route to Langdale End and then switched over to the Whitby route. Alas as I reached the summit of the ride at Lilla Howe, I got a puncture in my rear tyre, bugger, why is it always the back wheel which means stripping down the panniers and all that jazz! Well I did it and replaced the tube only to find that my replacement, was also punctured, double bugger, I must have picked up a spare not yet repaired from its previous deflation, pratt or what? So I set off to push the bike to Whitby, eight or nine miles away, fortunately mostly downhill! Amazingly after about half a mile I met two bikers going in the opposit direction who offered me their spare tube (size and valves matched, whoopee)! so we upended the bike and started again but to total dismay and consternation this brand new tube refused to inflate, theirs, or my pump made no difference, the valve was faulty and that was that, triple bugger!!! this was a blow, and what are the odds in such a situation of two tubes being useless? We shook hands and went on our opposite ways, two very good people, I should have taken a picture but all my attention was focused on the bike. Well with these two unplanned breaks, it has taken five hours to get to Whitby (Hawsker actually) and find a shop to buy a new tube from. And it was great to get riding again, into Whitby for some food then up out and West to Lingholme Moor for a wonderful camp.
No comments:
Post a Comment