The Lakes District

After work on Tuesday, Matt and I drove up to The Lakes District for a lil’ two day break. Matt had organised accommodation at a cute little 17th Century cottage, I fell in love with it as soon as we arrived. In the morning, we hired a full-suspension bike for me (for those interested I rode a Gary Fisher the first day and a Rocky Mountain the second), and Matt rode his prized Cannondale and we went trail riding for two days. We were going to go hiking the second day but I loved trail riding so much on the first day, we went out again. It was my first time trail riding on 'singletrack' and on a proper bike. It was a little scary, though, with all the technique Matt had grilled in to me back in Sydney, at the park next door to 161 Botany St, a lot of the much needed tricks came back.

The trails were muddy and puddly but riding with Matthew was so much fun! The trail was quite challenging in sections, but Matt was very patient and encouraging through out. I appreciated the regular coaching from the front, telling me what was coming up and what I had to do: ‘stay to the left’, ‘weight back over your seat’, change gear!’, ‘don’t stack!’ he he he. I only had one very small stack, which was only doing something very silly anyway.

On the second day, we went on a few more challenging routes, and I found myself going faster than the day before; The end trail was fab – downhill slopes, jumps (that I just rode over), bridges over drops and man made ramps. I don’t like man made ramps, they scare me - I had to walk over a few of them. I think it’s the fear of the unknown – what’s underneath? How big’s the drop? How sharp is that corner?

On the Wednesday night, we drove to a local pub a couple of miles away, recommended by John (owner of the cottage). It was curry night! We certainly got value for money both the ‘curry’ part of the meal, but also because there was so much food, not to mention making friends with the cutest, and most energetic, two year old Border Collie I’ve seen in a while.

I was a little apprehensive about the trail riding, but I had an absolute blast! It was fantastic being out there with Matthew, seeing some of the countryside in a beautiful part of Britain, exercising and keeping the nerves in check!
I saw and experienced why Matt loves it so much.

I may have to buy a bike!