Sunday morning and Nathalie and I were cycling through Moors Valley Country Park near Ringwood. She hasn't got a mountain bike at the moment so we take mine and hire one for her which at £4.50 for an hour and a half seems pretty good. Moors Valley gets visitors from all over the south and beyond, covering an area of 750 acres it has a network of walks, cycle tracks and plenty of opportunities for some serious off roading over a variety of surfaces, plus you can get up close and personal with nature if you want to. To make sure that there aren't any serious accidents involving cyclists and small children the play areas are strictly off limits for both cyclists and horse riders. There is also a large picnic area, playground, steam railway and full size 18 hole golf course.
Anyway we'd been cycling for about forty five minutes and had reached the edge of the park where one trail joins the Castlemain Trailway - this is a cycle track that is on the old Brockenhurst to Broadstone railway track bed. Unlike the trails in the park this consists entirely of compacted gravel. Inside the park Nathalie and I had ridden together, this was so we could talk as we rode and also so we could keep each other aware of tree roots and other obstacles. As we turned onto the Trailway I took the 'lead'. We'd been cycling for a minute or two when all of a sudden I heard the loudest most piercing scream I've heard in my life and I hope I don't hear one like it again.
I turned round and there laying on the floor some hundred yards behind me was Nathalie screaming in agony her bike laid on top of her. I then did something that seems bizarre on reflection, I dropped my bike and ran faster than I have done for about twenty years to where she lay. "Get the bike off me," she was screaming, "get the bike off me." I asked her if she could feel her legs, she said he could but her back hurt, she confirmed that she hadn't hit her head and that she had simply skidded. I lifted the bike off her and helped her to her feet. By this time a woman had appeared out of the doors with her dog in tow and asked if Nathalie was all right because she could hear the screams "miles away." I said she was a little shaken but other than that fine.
Nathalie wasn't fine though, she was a horrible pale green colour and looked as if she was going to throw-up. Her left elbow was bleeding and she had grazes and pock marks from the gravel over her lower back. I asked her to sit down and she sat on a bramble, which at least took her mind off being sick and her elbow hurting. There wasn't a sign of the bike having skidded and it seemed the strangest bike accident you could imagine. I asked her if she wanted to continue and after a drink and a five minute rest we cycled on for another 45 minutes. When we got home she had a bath and we dressed the wounds and she now has a bruise under her left eye but there doesn't appear to be any damage.
I've said we will visit Halfords this week and get some elbow pads. So along with the helmet, gloves and pads is there anything else I should equip her with. I'm all for getting out there and experiencing nature and the, sometimes, associated pain and discomfort but you wouldn't have thought that riding away from traffic on a flat surface without anybody else around could be so dangerous would you?
Incidentally whilst we were in the Park we saw two people on mountain bikes using their mobile phones, I mean how up your own arse do you have to be to need to talk on the phone when surrounded by so much that can take your mind of your weekly grind?
2 comments:
Glad that she's OK Paul. It must have been the shock that turned the poor child green! Hugs from me.
Talking of mobile phone usage and the stupidest examples seen of its use....two horses out for a walk with riders, a very common hazard around here, they walk past my house at least half a dozen times per day, just down the road this time, one on the road and the other on the pavement walking towards us. I notice that the horse on the pavement is moderately annoyed and is pulling on the reigns and making noises that I would associate with distress. I pull daughter towards me and into a drive in order (the bloody cheek of it) that horse and rider can continue on the pavement. Then I notice that rider is using a mobile phone. My exact words (for which I am suitable embarrassed) were 'stupid bitch'.
I nearly called one of the women who was using a mobile phone exactly that Mags. She seemed to think that she was entitled to ride on the wrong side of the track and force Nathalie and me into the ditch, I told Nathalie to stand her ground and in the end the woman had to give way, it wasn't her way to give!
Thanks for the hugs for Nats, she was feeling very sorry for herself this morning!
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