Exercise

[igenlode]

I cycled thirty miles yesterday (plus some canal-lock-gate pushing for an hour or so in the middle). My tailbone is still sore... which is odd, because I don't even sit on that bit!

Either it's a question of muscular attachment, or it was the gates ;-)

Total mileage: 2008.1

Before I left I made a 'Caribbean cake' (or the 1960s idea of it, anyway): orange, bitter chocolate and walnut. Or in my case, a 30p bar of 'dark chocolate', the few walnuts from my bag of fruit-and-nut mix, plus the brazil nuts and all the peanuts to make up most of the required weight! I left it to cool in the tin, and it was exceedingly welcome when I got back. I sliced and froze half the loaf, and... ate the other six slices in the course of that evening ;-p (Well, five of them, anyway. The last bit is for my lunch tomorrow, along with a helping of today's lentil soup.)

Comments

[watervole]

Well, I'm on the canals next week, so I shall report on state of tailbone...

[igenlode]

Mine's still sore and feels slightly swollen (or at any rate not as bony as one would expect!) so I think it must have been the unaccustomed heaving :-)

Hope you don't get rained on as much as I did -- there was a cloudburst in the middle of the locks...

[watervole]

I've been wet on the canals before. As long as you have decent waterproofs and it doesn't last forever, it's okay.

It often means you have a flight to yourselves, which allows you to enjoy it in a different way.

Unless it's cold and windy as well. Then it's a very different story.

[igenlode]

Wind is a complete nightmare when you're under tow -- especially when the boat towing is a hundred feet ahead of your tiller position, and communication above the engine noise is limited to a desperate high-pitched yell of "WIND!" as you drift inexorably down to leeward upon a line of moored boats... the motor boat having been obliged to 'slow to tickover' for the benefit of the linear carpark :-(

[watervole]

Sounds horrible.

Even without being under tow, wind can screw you when approaching a narrow lock. You can't line up straight with it.

[igenlode]

Bridge-holes, as well.

Probably not so much of an issue if you were i a boat laden down to the waterline with heavy cargo (and a powerful engine to compensate), but holiday craft with high cabins really suffer from beam winds. (I've sometimes dreamed of rigging up a sail and travelling along at a nice fast reach!)