CYCLING THE BACK ROADS

There are roads you never use in a car. They don't go anywhere. . . well, they don't go anywhere you'd normally want to go. People live down those roads, in farms, or isolated cottages, of course. Farmers use these lanes to take their tractors from field to field, to drive sheep from pasture to pasture or cattle from grass to milking parlour. They are good places to walk your dog or go for a jog. And they're havens for small animals - red squirrels, feral cats, pheasants, rabbits, barn owls are all common sights, and if you look closely enough there are the little scuttling shrews and mice as well as small hedge birds like dunnocks and wrens.

Cycling quietly along you even notice a black beetle scuttling out of your way, or a huge shiny slug, stretched across your path, laying down its sluggy life in the cause of greater slugdom.

It's nice getting off the main road on your bike. The wild flowers that line the hedgerows smell sweeter - ah, meadowsweet! - and the diesel fumes are far away. Too quiet for me, though, so I start composing a song as I go, singing at the top of my voice and trying to memorize the lyrics to scribble them all down when I get home.

I stop to look over a little hump backed bridge that crosses the River Ellen - my River Ellen, that flows quite near our village, through a field where we often take the dogs. It's narrower here. Just a gentle, inconsequential little river of little interest to anyone who doesn't live near its banks. I like it, though. I notice that Aspatria Angling Club wouldn't allow me to fish here. I guess that means it's a good place to find fish. Just as well I prefer to leave them in the river.

There are some long-disused lime kilns somewhere near Wardhall Guards, a strangely named spot on the OS map and near where I'm cycling. Russell Barnes, who knows about these things, has a couple of photos of them on Flickr but I can't find them. Maybe next time. I do find some huge piles of white stuff in a field - could be lime? Not sure what it looks like, but I do know there's masses of limestone in this area.

Sore leg muscles the next day.11 miles may not seem far to those who cycle a lot, but for me it's a lot. Next time, though, it'll be further!

Addendum April 15th 2008
Apparently I misunderstood the Aspatria Angling Club sign. Never having been an angler, I wasn't aware that for only £20 you can buy a season ticket to fish away in these waters to your heart's content. Gosh! A bargain, and if you're good at it it's probably a lot cheaper than going to the local wet fish shop. My apologies to AM Rankin, and here's a link to their website so that potential fisherpeople can find out exactly what's in store for them: Aspatria Angling Club website