28th January
After our eventful ride through the floods the previous week I had expressed an interest in a GoPro or equivalent as a birthday present. On Sunday 24th January the doorbell rang for a delivery, which turned out to be an early birthday present. It was an Akaso EK7000 PRO. For this ride I decided to fix the camera to my helmet.
It was raining as we set off up Bowden Road towards Milborne Port for a ride that would take us through Stowell, South Cheriton, Horsington Marsh and part of the Blackmore Vale south of Wincanton. It wasn't long before we stopped and had a chat with a couple of local families out for a walk, donned in wellies and raincoats. The children were enjoying splashing in the puddles.
Fixed to my helmet, the camera was very noticeable and I could see the adults were concerned I may have been recording them. A brief explanation soon put them at ease. The camera only recorded when I activated it, by pressing a button on a wrist band or on the actual camera.
Somehow we managed to cycle up Stowell Hill without stopping (a rare occurrence), past St Mary Magadalene Church and the bench overlooking Stowell.
The promise of a two mile downhill stretch on cresting the hill kept us going and we soon found ourselves turning into Cabbage Lane and cycling through the hamlet of Wilkinthroop. Wilkinthroop House was for several decades a site for what is now known as Thales Underwater Systems.
We stopped at our usual spot for our mid ride break, sitting on a wall at Wilkinthrop overlooking the Blackmore Vale, with a view over to Cucklington and the "white houses". I changed the battery on my camera and probably forgot to turn it on afterwards because there weren't any videos from this point onwards. I think it will be trial and error for a while until I am able to use it properly. I decided early on in the bike ride that I need to position the camera elsewhere.
From Wilkinthroop it is a lovely cycle ride down hill through South Cheriton and along Marsh Lane where we came across a van stuck in mud in front of a gate. We quickly ascertained that they were not going to be able to push the van out even with our help.
On the corner of Marsh Lane and Batchpool Lane is a copse of silver birches, in the midst of which is a large oak tree you can really only truly see in winter. It is lovely to think that it was not chopped down to make way for younger more productive trees.
As we cycled back to Templecombe we were forever hopeful of sighting one of the barn owls we have been fortunate enough to see in flight in recently. Unfortunately neither made an appearance for us today and as we cycled along Temple Lane back to our start point it started raining again.
Fresh air, exercise, good company and a good old catchup results in us finishing our ride (approx 14 miles), tired but happy.
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