settlements with large open fields. Sharon suggested that we ended the day’s ride with a great downhill back into the village – saving the best to last. Dave pointed out the railway line where the well-known Railway Children was filmed.

Singletrack Expectations I started to revise my singletrack expectations with the first trail. It was the narrowest one I have ever been on, barely twice the width of my tyre in places, with gullies and channels everywhere. I hadn’t had to focus that hard on the ground for a long time and had to tell myself to stick with often the only line available and to stay with it and not move the handlebars at all. The irony of having to concentrate so hard on trails with scant line choices was certainly different from the south where you’re tired from too many choices sometimes. ‘Shoeshine’? It puzzled me why the impending trail was given its name on this windswept land of heather and wild moor. The gang sped up and it was all I could do to keep up. Suddenly I stopped and examined just

‘Trust me, it’s better than it looks.’

exactly where the trail went, the heather masked the gully’s direction almost entirely. Direction relocated I got my bearings, took aim and accelerated, leaning my chest forward and gripping the bars tight to give chase through the heather. My attempt at an aggressive pursuit failed and I began laughing to myself as the low foliage tickled my legs along the way until I reached a drop off and exited the heather’s grasps to rejoin the group. I looked down at my shoes to see if they really were buffed to a glossy shine that my Grandad would have been proud of. I only saw my dry, mud-covered shoes staring back up at me, hardly polished as the name of the trail suggests. I then noticed the red scratches from the heather causing my legs to throb.

It’s OK, I suppose. . . ‘Not bad, is it?’ I surprised myself when I expressed my thoughts aloud again during the next section. I looked up at a view of a long gentle incline, lined with trees and fences. The gentle pace felt very different from pedalling uphill at home with the short, sharp, shocks of the Bristol

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