Waking up in Brixham – on a beautiful day and with church bells ringing out across the harbour – was magical. Rather than being wracked with guilt at ‘cheating’, I felt quite liberated, and ready to continue my new, more relaxed approach to our adventure!
Having told you in ‘Adventure Dilemmas’ about all the indecision and procrastination surrounding our adventure last summer, I need to tell you about how it all went.
The weather is improving, and Little Brother and I have been on some short journeys on the tandem. Last week, I was trying to convince him to go on a longer trip, and he was quite happy to do this… especially if there was a pub involved.
We were given a “proper” bike for Chloe a while ago from some friends. However, she’d been having so much fun on her balance bike, she wasn’t really very interested.
Before settling down for the night in Charmouth, I had given myself a good talking to for having ‘confused’ numbers such as 56 and 59 with much smaller numbers such as 40. I had looked again at the route for the following day, established that Brixham was 54 miles away, which would mean setting off at half-past nine, and had given myself another good talking to.
Our newest cycle route follows both sides of the Tuki Tuki river – what a great sounding word!
At our previous house, we were very fortunate in that the immediate area was very safe for small children, and this made it relatively easy for James to practice riding his bike. We are not so lucky in our present house, but we tend to use the tandems for getting around, and there isn’t any great need for the boys to be able to ride their solo bikes.
Until recently, when James and I went out on the tandem, I had an unwritten guideline that we would stop only once. But now we’re covering more miles, that’s just no longer realistic. The further you cycle, the more pubs and tearooms you’re likely to pass; and the further you cycle, the more appealing they seem to become!
After a good night’s sleep and a fantastic full breakfast we were cycling by half-past nine. I was quite impressed by our departure time, but less so by the weather. The drizzle had not been forecast; nor had the thunderstorm. As we toiled up a steep hill, the heavens opened and we were pelted by hailstones, which really hurt when your only protection is a bit of lycra.
My idea of a good family bike trip is something like this...
Sophie has been desperate to get her own bike for ages. We’re been tormenting her for months, getting James’ old balance bike out the garage, letting her sit on it, realising it was far too big, then putting it back.
It is well and truly Spring in Switzerland now, so the skis have been packed away, and the bikes dusted off. Last weekend saw our first family bike ride of the year, and it was probably one of our best so far.
